THE  LIBRARIES 


GIVEN  BY 


Union  Theological  Seminary 


THE  REVEREND  HENRY  NITCHIE  COBB,D.D. 


IN    MEMORIAM 

THE  REVEREND 
HENRY  NITCHIE  COBB,  D.D. 

CORRESPONDING    SECRETARY 

BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

THE  REFORMED  CHURCH 

IN   AMERICA 

1882-1910 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 

NEW  YORK 

1911 


yUl  * 


-/ ^  e:  rf*--  -/v 


\£^f 


JUN  2  4  iii46 


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THIS  Memorial  Volume  is  the  tribute  of  the  members 
of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  to  their  col- 
league and  leader  of  nearly  three  decades.  Words  are 
inadequate  to  suitably  clothe  the  thoughts  and  feelings  that 
have  prompted  this  Memorial.  It  is  hoped,  however,  that 
it  in  some  measure  expresses  the  high  regard  and  the  deep 
affection  in  which  Dr.  Cobb  was  held  by  his  immediate 
associates  at  home  and  on  the  broad  field  of  the  world,  as 
well  as  by  the  entire  Church,  whose  activities  in  foreign 
lands  were  so  tenderly  and  so  faithfully  fostered  by  him. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

PRESENTED  TO  GENERAL  SYNOD,  1910 

THE  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  the  beloved  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  our  Church  for 
twenty-seven  years,  was  born  in  New  York  City,  November 
15,  1834,  and  died  at  his  home  in  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  on  Sunday 
afternoon,  April  17,  1910,  aged  seventy-five  years.  Dr.  Cobb 
graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1855  and  from  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  1857.  He  was  licensed  and  ordained  by  the  Third 
Presbytery  of  New  York  in  1860,  and  in  that  same  year  was  sent  out 
by  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  as  missionary  to  the 
Nestorians  in  Persia  and  Koordistan.  After  two  years'  service  his 
health  gave  way  and  he  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  life  plan  to  be 
a  foreign  missionary  and  to  return  to  America.  He  became  pastor 
of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Millbrook,  N.  Y.,  where  he  gave  a 
faithful  ministry  of  fifteen  years,  from  1866  to  1881,  laying  the 
foundations  for  that  wide  circle  of  friendship  and  that  personal 
devotion  to  himself  which  his  Christian  character,  his  service  for 
others  and  his  winning  personality  attracted  throughout  his  life. 
During  that  period,  in  1877,  General  Synod  elected  him  a  member 
of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  his  services  and  counsels 
there  revealed  him  to  be  a  man  of  such  value  in  the  work  of  the 
Board  that  upon  the  retirement  of  the  Rev.  John  Mason  Ferris, 
D.D.,  as  Corresponding  Secretary,  Dr.  Cobb  was  promptly  elected 
his  successor.  The  far-seeing  wisdom  of  the  Board's  selection  was 
increasingly  manifest  during  the  twenty-seven  years  of  his  service, 
closing  with  his  death.  Dr.  Cobb's  personal  qualities  were  of  the 
highest  and  most  winning  type.  Extremely  modest,  a  man  of  sin- 
gular purity  of  character,  with  an  innate  and  beautiful  courtesy  of 
manner,  a  whole-souled  kindness  of  heart,  calm  and  self  controlled, 
patient  and  yet  steadily  persistent  amid  the  weighty  responsibilities 
that  marked  all  his  years  of  varied  service  as  foreign  missionary,  as 
pastor  and  as  leader  in  the  administration  of  the  missionary  work 


14  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

of  the  denomination,  Dr.  Cobb  was  a  very  unusual  man.  And 
when  there  is  added  the  acquired  graces  of  great  faith  and  untiring 
devotion  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  we  can  but 
look  upon  him  with  profound  admiration  and  love,  and  bless  God 
for  giving  him  to  our  Church  and  to  the  world.  Dr.  Cobb's  intel- 
lectual capacity  and  activity  were  markedly  illustrated  by  what  he 
accomplished  in  his  two  years'  service  on  the  foreign  mission  field. 
He  not  only  fulfilled  the  ordinary  duties  of  a  young  missionary  in 
proclaiming  the  Gospel,  but  he  rapidly  perfected  his  knowledge  of 
the  language  of  the  people  he  served,  wrote  tract  letters  to  the 
"Helpers  of  the  Nestorian  Missions,"  in  the  Koordish  Mountains, 
edited  a  monthly  paper,  "Rays  of  Light,"  in  the  Sjriac  language, 
and  published  an  almanac  and  Sabbath-School  Hymn  Book  in 
modem  Syriac,  besides  sending  letters  to  the  Home  Board  and  to 
various  religious  papers,  keeping  his  field  in  the  constant  view  of 
the  Church  which  sent  him  abroad.  And  it  is  not  surprising  that 
broken  health  resulted  from  such  multiplied  labors,  crowded  within 
two  years  of  his  life.  Then  his  fifteen  years  of  the  pastorate  en- 
larged his  experience  and  completed  the  preparation  and  equipment 
for  his  life  work  as  Secretary.  In  this  office  he  excelled.  There 
was  no  question  of  his  rightful  leadership,  and  yet  that  leadership 
engendered  no  jealousies,  because  of  the  transparent  unselfishness 
of  his  motives,  his  complete  and  perfect  knowledge  of  all  phases  of 
the  work,  and  because  of  his  sincere  regard  for  the  judgment  of  his 
colleagues  on  the  Board.  Dr.  Cobb  possessed  rare  gifts  for  the 
work  to  which  he  gave  the  richest  and  latest  years  of  his  life.  He 
was  a  man  of  large  vision,  of  keen  discernment,  of  poise  and  strong 
business  sense,  of  great  Christian  convictions  and  of  sustained  and 
kindling  enthusiasm.  He  had  a  most  thorough  knowledge  of  every 
aspect  of  the  great  work  of  world  evangelization,  and  was  recog- 
nized within  and  without  the  Church  as  a  great  missionary  states- 
man. He  gave  his  whole  self  to  the  work  in  tireless  industry,  in  the 
utmost  promptitude,  in  the  most  patient  attention  to  every  detail, 
in  his  most  faithful  and  appreciated  correspondence  with  the  mis- 
sions and  with  individual  missionaries,  in  his  endeavors  to  deepen 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH  15 

interest  in  the  churches  at  home  in  the  work  abroad,  and  in  his 
willing  and  most  helpful  identification  with  every  movement  which 
aimed  at  the  enlightenment  and  enlistment  of  the  constituency  at 
home  or  the  expansion  of  the  work  abroad.  During  Dr.  Cobb's 
secretaryship  the  work  in  all  our  missions  greatly  advanced,  the 
number  of  missionaries  trebled  and  the  receipts  increased  almost 
fourfold.  It  was  during  his  incumbency  that  the  Arabian  Mission, 
which  was  organized  in  1889,  grew  to  be  one  of  our  strongest  mis- 
sions. He  officially  visited  our  missions  in  Asia  in  1892,  and  again 
in  1904,  receiving  the  warmest  welcome  from  the  missionaries, 
greatly  endearing  himself  to  the  Oriental  Christian  constituency 
and  by  his  valuable  counsel  greatly  strengthening  the  efficiency  of 
the  work  in  every  country  which  he  visited.  Hence  the  mourning 
for  Dr.  Cobb  is  not  limited  to  us  who  were  brothers  to  him  in  the 
homeland  where  he  inspired  and  led  the  Church  forward  to  in- 
creasing effort  and  offerings  for  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  He  is 
mourned  today  in  many  lands — in  Arabia,  in  India,  in  China  and 
in  Japan — mourned  by  the  missionaries  who  loved  and  trusted  him 
and  by  those  brought  out  of  heathenism  who  saw  him  years  ago  for 
a  day  or  two,  and  who  heard  his  encouraging  words  and  received 
his  blessing.  An  obituary  sketch  of  such  a  man  is  not  complete  if 
the  keynote  of  his  life  is  not  emphasized.  Dr.  Cobb  was  a  man  of 
great  faith — faith  in  God  and  His  great  plans  of  mercy  for  a  sin- 
cursed  world,  provided  in  and  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord,  and 
faith  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  He  believed  in  the  very  center  of  his 
soul  that  He  who  lived  and  died  for  the  world  is  yet  to  rule  it,  and 
that  we  are  called  to  aid  in  bringing  about  that  supremacy.  With 
what  unwavering  confidence  did  he  quote  again  and  again  in  his 
reports  and  addresses  the  promises  and  commands  of  his  Master,  as 
if  he  felt  that  where  the  Master  laid  an  injunction  on  his  people  He 
could  be  trusted  to  give  the  needed  strength  to  obey  it.  His  was 
the  modem  spirit  of  missions — the  desire  in  love  and  loyalty  to 
Christ  to  make  Him  known,  to  make  His  saving  and  uplifting 
power  felt  in  all  the  earth.  All  who  have  heard  his  addresses  on  the 
floor  of  General  Synod  and  elsewhere  will  remember  the  marvelous 


16  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

effect  of  his  manifest  consecration  and  the  power  of  his  earnest  and 
eloquent  presentation  of  the  foreign  mission  opportunity  and  obli- 
gation, his  thrilling  testimony  to  the  Master's  favor  on  the  field,  and 
the  to-be-coveted  privilege  of  cooperation  in  this  heaven-bom  and 
heaven-ordered  work  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  human  race  and 
the  bringing  in  the  day  when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  will  be- 
come the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ.  May  Elijah's 
mantle  fall  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  succeeding  Elisha  in  the  secre- 
taryship !  Rutgers  College  gave  Dr.  Cobb  the  honorary  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity  in  1878.  Mrs.  Cobb,  to  whom  he  was  married 
in  1860,  survived  her  husband  less  than  a  month.  Through  fifty 
years  she  was  his  constant  companion  in  life  and  in  thought  and  his 
unfailing  support.  They  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives 
and  in  their  death  they  were  not  long  divided. 


FUNERAL  SERVICE 


FUNERAL  SERVICE 

AT  EAST  ORANGE,  N.  J.,  APRIL  19,  1910 

The  service  at  the  house,  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Evert- 
son  Cobb,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  William  I.  Chamberlain,  Ph.D. 

The  service  at  the  Central  Presbyterian  Church,  conducted  by 
the  Rev.  Edward  B.  Coe,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Senior  Minister  of  the 
Collegiate  Church  and  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee, 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

Reading  of  Scriptures : 

The  Psalms,  the  Rev.  James  L.  Amerman,  D.D. 
The  Epistle,  the  Rev.  John  F.  Patterson,  D.D. 

Address,  the  Rev.  Edward  B.  Coe,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Prayer,  the  Rev.  John  G.  Fagg,  D.D.,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions. 

HONORARY  PALL  BEARERS 

The  Rev.  Dr.  L.  Francis  Mr,  John  Bingham 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  P.  Searle  Mr.  W.  L.  Brower 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  I.  Vance  Mr.  C.  H.  Harris 

The  Rev.  J.  H.  Whitehead  Mr.  E.  E.  Olcott 

The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Fox  Mr.  F.  R.  Van  Nest 


ADDRESS:   DR.  COE 

ONE  by  one  God's  sen^ants  fall, but  His  cause  moves  on,  and 
the  lives  that  we  honor  most  highly  and  remember  most 
gratefully  are  those  which  have  been  unselfishly  given  to 
promote  its  progress.  Four  days  ago  we  were  startled  by  the  tid- 
ings of  the  sudden  death  of  one  of  our  most  useful  missionaries  in 
China.  Young,  brilliant,  enthusiastic,  with  rare  skill  in  his  profes- 
sion and  a  singular  power  to  enlist  the  confidence, the  sympathy  and 
the  cooperation  of  others.  Dr.  Otte  fell,  a  victim  to  his  self -forgetful 
devotion,  and  laid  down  his  life  in  the  service  of  the  poor  and  suffer- 
ing in  that  far  distant-land.  Now  it  is  our  leader  who  is  fallen — 
revered,  trusted,  beloved;  who  for  more  than  twenty-seven  years 
has  stood  in  the  forefront  of  our  missionary  work ;  dear  to  all  who 
have  known  him,  dearest  to  those  who  have  labored  with  him;  a 
man  of  singular  purity  of  character,  of  great  faith  and  great  fidelity, 
wise  and  farseeing  in  counsel,  efficient  in  action,  recognized  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  our  Board  and  of  our  Church  as  one  of  the 
leaders  in  this  country  in  the  great  cause  of  foreign  missions. 

God  granted  him  to  us  for  many  years,  and  yet  we  hoped  for 
more.  We  saw  that  his  strength  was  failing  under  the  burdens  and 
cares  that  rested  so  heavily  upon  him  and  with  the  steady  advance 
of  age,  and  yet  we  thought  that  he  might  perhaps  relinquish  some 
of  his  labors  while  we  still  retained  our  delightful  association  with 
him  and  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  his  experience,  his  counsel,  his  zeal 
and  his  unconquerable  faith.  But  He  whose  thoughts  and  ways 
are  not  as  ours  has  released  him  from  the  earthly  service  and  called 
him  to  his  great  reward.  We  are  gathered  here  this  afternoon,  not 
to  review  his  life  and  analyze  his  character  and  estimate  his  service — 
another  more  fitting  opportunity  for  that  will  soon  be  found ;  we 
are  here,  rather,  reverently  to  acknowledge  the  goodness  and  grace 
of  God  as  they  were  manifested  in  him;  to  express  our  sympathy  to 
those  whose  loss  and  sorrow  is  so  ovenvhelming  and  to  follow 
him  in  our  thoughts  into  that  larger  life  on  which  he  has  now 


22  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

entered.  Appropriate  to  this  hour,  as  it  seems  to  me,  are  only  a 
few  words  of  affectionate  personal  remembrance  and  of  Christian 
faith  and  hope. 

And  yet  even  such  words  are  not  easy  to  speak,  for  he  was  one  of 
the  most  modest  of  men.  He  would  never  have  consented  for  a 
moment  to  be  ranked  among  great  missionaries  or  great  men  of  any 
class.  In  his  thought  of  himself,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  most  appro- 
priate epitaph  for  him  would  possibly  be  that  of  the  great  English 
soldier  who  fell  in  India — "Here  lies  one  who  tried  to  do  his  duty." 
He  seemed  to  be  utterly  unconscious  of  the  honor  in  which  he  was 
held  by  us  and  by  multitudes  of  others.  He  appreciated,  I  think, 
the  confidence  which  was  so  richly  reposed  in  him,  and  he  surely 
was  not  unworthy  of  it.  He  responded  most  heartily  to  the  per- 
sonal affection  which  was  so  often  and  so  cordially  expressed  to  him. 
But  there  was  in  him  no  self-esteem  whatever.  Clear  and  strong  as 
his  judgments  were,  with  an  innate  and  beautiful  courtesy  he  was 
always  ready  to  defer  to  the  judgment  of  others.  He  was  removed 
in  spirit  as  far  as  possible  from  that  self  confidence  and  arrogance 
which  so  often  go  with  the  capacity  of  leadership  like  that  which  he 
possessed.  And  yet  it  is  the  simple  truth  that  during  all  these  years 
he  had  directed  our  foreign  missionary  work  with  singular  ability 
and  with  ever-increasing  success.  Our  Board  is  not  one  of  the 
largest  of  foreign  missionary  boards,  and  yet  important  responsi- 
bilities rest  upon  it.  Its  work  is  carried  on  in  many  fields,  many 
missionaries  are  laboring  in  connection  with  it ;  important  questions 
are  constantly  coming  before  it  for  decision,  and  it  has  made  itself 
responsible  for  the  speedy  evangelization  of  many  millions  of  men. 
The  office  of  secretary  in  such  a  board  is  one  of  great  responsibihty, 
great  dignity  and  great  importance.  Good  men  and  strong  men 
were  associated  with  him  in  the  work,  and  yet  in  it  always  from  the 
beginning  until  now  he  had  been  their  guiding  spirit. 

There  are  three  reasons,  I  think,  especially  for  this.  One  of 
them  was  his  remarkable  knowledge  of  the  work  and  of  the  condi- 
tions under  which  it  must  be  carried  on ;  another  was  the  soundness 
of  his  judgment  and  his  breadth  of  view,  and  another  was  his  abso- 


FUNERAL    SERVICE  23 

lute  sincerity  and  lionesty  of  purpose.  Few  men  have  had  a  more 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  foreign  missionary  work.  He  had 
studied  its  history  with  interest  and  with  insight.  He  knew  the 
lives  of  the  great  missionaries.  Many  of  them  he  personally  knew. 
He  knew  well  every  man  and  every  woman  who  has  gone  into  the 
foreign  missionary  field  under  the  direction  of  our  Board.  He  was 
in  constant  correspondence  with  them;  he  visited  them  again  and 
again;  he  engaged  with  them  in  most  earnest  and  sympathetic  con- 
ference in  regard  to  their  work;  he  knew  their  joys  and  sorrows, 
their  toils  and  difficulties,  their  hopes  and  fears;  he  entered  with 
them  into  the  perplexing  conditions  by  which  they  were  so  often 
confronted  and  he  rejoiced  unspeakably  in  their  successes.  He 
had  thus  an  acquaintance  with  the  work  which  we  as  a  church  are 
engaged  in  which  was  most  minute  and  most  exact.  It  often 
seemed  to  me  as  if  he  knew  not  only  every  man  and  woman  in  our 
foreign  missionary  service  but  every  building  in  which  the  work  is 
carried  on.  And  all  this  wealth  of  accurate  and  sympathetic 
knowledge  he  brought  to  the  solution  of  the  problems  which  faced 
him  and  us  from  time  to  time.  What  an  unspeakable  loss  it  is  to 
us  and  to  the  Church  that  all  this  is  taken  from  us,  except  as  it  has 
entered  into  the  settled  policy  of  our  Foreign  Missionary  Society. 

And  then  how  clear  and  sound  his  judgment  was !  He  was  a 
man  of  penetrating  intelligence,  of  remarkable  mental  poise  and 
balance.  Intensely  interested  as  he  was  in  the  work  which  engaged 
his  thoughts  and  prayers,  he  was  under  no  illusions  concerning  it. 
The  Forward  Movement  he  entered  into  most  heartily,  he  labored 
for  it  most  diligently,  he  prayed  most  earnestly  for  its  success. 
Why  should  he  not  ?  He  had  been  passionately  pleading  for  it  for 
many  years.  And  yet  he  understood  perfectly  the  tremendous 
magnitude  of  the  undertaking  in  which  the  Church  of  Christ  is 
engaged.  He  knew  well  that  not  in  a  year  nor  in  a  generation  will 
the  whole  world  be  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
realized  that  it  meant  a  persistent,  mighty,  age-long  effort.  And  that 
is  what  he  wrought  and  planned  and  prayed  for.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  when  his  judgment  of  the  great  issue  before  us  was  so  clear 


24  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

and  sound  we  should  have  looked  to  him,  as  others  also  looked,  for 
counsel  and  advice  ? 

I  need  hardly  say  a  word  of  his  personal  sincerity  and  purity  of 
character,  because  it  was  so  evident  to  everybody.  His  whole  soul 
was  in  the  work  to  which  he  gave  the  best  years  of  his  life.  What  a 
joy  it  was  to  him  to  visit  the  scenes  in  which  it  is  carried  on,  and 
how  gladly  he  was  welcomed  there,  greeted  with  hymns  and 
crowned  with  flowers !  What  a  delight  it  was  to  him  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  native  workers  who,  by  the  labors  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, had  been  brought  to  Christ  and  who  then  enlisted  in  His 
service.  And  how  his  heart  was  gladdened  from  time  to  time  as 
the  tidings  came  of  the  great  and  widening  success  of  all  our 
missions.  And  yet  with  the  joy  and  interest  came  also  the  burden 
of  anxiety.  Oh,  how  heavy  it  was,  and  how  constantly  it  rested 
upon  him,  day  and  night,  winter  and  summer,  year  after  year.  I 
doubt  if  any  of  us  realize  what  a  burden  he  carried  on  his  mind  and 
heart  silently  and  patiently  for  so  long.  He  saw  so  clearly  the  im- 
portance and  the  urgency  of  the  great  missionary  work,  and  the 
Church  at  home  sometimes  seemed  to  him  so  slow  to  rise  to  a  sense 
of  its  opportunity  and  to  respond  to  that  opportunity.  His  was  the 
burden  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  which  he  saw  fit  to  single  out  for  special 
mention  in  the  catalogue  of  his  scourgings  and  shipwrecks  when  he 
said:  "That  which  cometh  upon  me  daily,  anxiety  about  all  the 
churches."  He,  too,  bore  it  willingly — bore  it  even  gladly — be- 
cause it  was  the  Master's  mind  which  had  laid  it  upon  him,  and  this 
was  his  way  of  filling  up  that  which  was  lacking  in  the  sufferings  of 
Jesus  Christ.  And  yet  I  feel,  my  dear  Christian  friends,  that  it 
must  have  been  to  him  an  unspeakable  relief  to  lay  it  down. 

But  in  spite  of  this  his  faith  never  faltered.  He  believed  in  the 
Church.  He  never  doubted  that  the  Church  which  he  so  lovingly 
served  would  respond  to  the  great  appeal  which  was  made  to  it,  and 
would  come  up,  slowly  perhaps,  but  finally,  to  the  full  measure  of 
its  opportunity  and  its  duty.  Above  all,  he  believed  in  Christ. 
With  what  unwavering  confidence  did  he  quote  again  and  again  in 
his  reports  and  in  his  addresses  the  promises  and  the  commands  of 


FUNERAL    SERVICE  25 

the  Master — the  commands  more  often  (it  used  to  seem  to  me) 
than  the  promises,  as  if  he  felt  that  where  the  Master  laid  an  injunc- 
tion on  His  people  He  could  be  trusted  to  give  the  needed  strength 
to  obey  it.  You  remember  those  addresses — the  simple  and 
familiar  talks  which  he  gave  from  time  to  time  to  little  groups  of 
friends,  and  the  more  formal,  often  the  very  eloquent,  addresses 
which  he  delivered  on  great  occasions  and  at  meetings  of  our 
General  S}Tiod.  This  was  in  all  of  them  the  dominant  note — 
obedience  to  Jesus  Christ.  What  he  labored  for  was  not  merely  the 
salvation  of  a  few  souls  here  and  there  in  non-Christian  lands;  it 
was  not  merely  the  relief  of  physical  suffering  and  of  social  degrada- 
ation.  His  was  the  modem  spirit  of  missions,  the  desire  in  love 
and  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  to  make  Him  known,  to  make  His  saving 
and  uplifting  power  felt  in  all  the  earth.  And  he  believed  to  the 
very  center  of  his  soul  that  He  who  lived  and  died  for  the  world  is 
yet  to  rule  the  world. 

Here  was  the  secret  of  his  patience.  He  believed  that  contro- 
versies would  subside  and  that  those  who  were  animated  by  a  com- 
mon purpose  would  in  time  and  under  the  guidance  of  God's  Spirit 
come  to  an  agreement.  He  believed  that  difficulties  would  be 
removed.  And  again  and  again  his  faith  was  verified;  so  with 
infinite  patience  he  wrote  letter  after  letter,  he  engaged  in  confer- 
ence after  conference,  and  he  toiled  on,  day  after  day  and  month 
after  month  and  year  after  year,  in  storm  and  heat,  not  sparing 
himself,  unwilling  to  take  even  the  rest  that  he  needed,  laboring 
often  without  the  necessary  help,  utterly  uncomplaining,  never 
thinking  of  himself,  if  only  the  great  work  might  go  on. 

And  what  a  joy  it  was  to  work  with  him.  In  many  respects  he 
seems  to  me  to  have  been  the  ideal  secretary  of  a  missionary 
society  by  reason  of  his  coolness,  his  magnanimity,  his  sympathy, 
his  conservatism,  and  at  the  same  time  his  openness  of  mind,  his 
promptness  in  all  business  matters,  his  readiness  to  undertake  any 
labor,  his  loyalty  to  the  cause  and  to  the  Master.  He  was  often 
weary,  he  was  sometimes  disappointed,  he  was  sometimes  over- 
ruled, but  his  self-control,  his  courtesy,  his  confidence  in  his  asso- 


26  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

ciates  and  his  loyalty  to  the  Church  never  for  a  moment  failed.  I 
fear  he  did  not  know  how  much  we  loved  him.  I  want  his  family 
at  any  rate  to  know  that  to  us  he  was  not  merely  a  trusted  associate 
and  fellow  laborer;  he  was  a  dear,  personal  friend.  The  whole 
Church  loved  and  trusted  him,  not  we  alone,  and  that  is  surely 
eulogy  enough  for  any  man.  I  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  to 
quote  what  was  said  many  years  ago  of  another  great  secretary,  my 
own  father,  to  this  effect :  That  it  is  much  when  a  single  church  or 
congregation  calls  a  man  to  be  its  pastor  and  teacher;  it  is  more 
when  an  organization  representing  many  churches  elects  and  wel- 
comes one  to  the  charge  of  its  affairs ;  but  it  is  a  still  higher  honor 
when  all  the  churches  engaged  in  a  common  work  put  one  at  their 
head  and  give  him  year  after  year  their  unstinted  confidence  and 
their  loyal  support.  And  that  was  the  honor  which  came  to  him. 
Others  will  speak  of  his  relation  to  the  missionary  work  at  large, 
of  the  confidence  and  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  other  mission- 
ary boards,  and  of  the  respect  and  deference  shown  him  on  great 
occasions  and  by  great  gatherings  of  Christian  men.  I  may  barely 
allude  to  his  claim  upon  our  grateful  recollection  as  a  neighbor  and 
a  citizen.  We  may  not  forget  that  he  was  for  many  years  a  preacher 
and  pastor,  honored  and  beloved.  But  his  name  is  now  and 
always  will  be  chiefly  associated  with  that  great  cause  to  which  he 
gave  the  crowning  years  of  his  life.  He  is  mourned  today  in 
many  lands — in  Arabia,  in  India,  in  China,  in  Japan.  He  is 
mourned  by  the  missionaries  who  knew  him  and  who  trusted  him, 
mourned  by  some  of  those  who  saw  him  years  ago  for  a  day  or  two 
only  and  have  never  seen  him  since,  and  there  are  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  others  who  never  knew  him  and  to  whom  the  tidings 
of  his  death  will  mean  nothing,  but  who  have  lost  in  him  a  bene- 
factor and  friend.  It  is  well  for  us  to  honor  the  missionaries — 
heroes  and  heroines  of  the  faith — who  leave  the  comforts  and  oppor- 
tunities of  the  homeland  and  go  out  to  lives  of  solitude  and  toil,  of 
disappointment  and  of  sorrow  often,  sometimes  of  peril,  sometimes 
ending  in  a  violent  death.  But  no  less  worthy  of  honor  is  a  man 
like  this  whose  labors  have  made  possible  the  labors  and  the  sue- 


FUNERAL    SERVICE  27 

cesses  of  many  others,  the  wise,  patient,  faithful  administrator  of  a 
great  trust,  who  has  done  so  much  to  rouse  and  raise  the  Church  to 
the  great  opportunity  and  the  mighty  task  which  appealed  so  pow- 
erfully to  his  own  soul.  Our  hearts  go  out  in  tenderest  sympathy 
to  those  whose  home  is  shadowed  and  broken  by  his  death,  but  we 
rejoice  with  them  in  the  great  work  that  he  accomplished.  We 
thank  God  for  his  example  and  for  his  influence  on  ourselves  and 
on  others.  And  with  the  utmost  reverence  we  say,  as  we  close  the 
volume  of  his  life :  "He  is  not  here,  for  he  is  risen" — to  his  rest  and 
his  reward. 


PRAYER:   DR.  FAGG 

OLORD,  our  Heavenly  Father,  we  come  to  Thee  today 
with  subdued  and  saddened  hearts.  We  come  with  grate- 
ful and  appreciative  hearts,  with  hopeful  and  beheving 
hearts.  We  cannot  think  of  the  passing  on  of  Thy  servant,  our 
beloved  friend  and  co-worker  for  many  years,  without  a  deep  and 
well-nigh  overwhelming  sense  of  loss  that  we  shall  see  his  face  no 
more.  But  we  thank  Thee  with  all  our  hearts  for  the  gift  of  his  life 
and  all  "that  it  meant  to  his  home,  to  his  friends,  to  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  the  great  cause  to  which  he  gave  the  earliest  and  the 
latest  and  richest  years  of  his  life.  We  thank  Thee  for  his  noble 
personal  qualities,  for  his  unwearied  industry,  for  his  great  grasp 
of  the  important  work  committed  to  his  hands,  for  his  high  man- 
hood, for  his  beautiful  humility,  for  his  lovableness,  for  his  com- 
panionableness,  for  his  lofty  spirituahty,  for  his  strong  and  deep 
convictions,  for  his  knowledge  of  and  love  of  Thy  word,  for  his  love 
of  God  and  his  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  for  his  world  vision  and  his 
world  sympathy  and  for  his  longing  to  see  the  world  brought  to  the 
feet  of  our  Divine  Lord.  We  thank  Thee  for  his  wise  and  faithful 
administration  of  the  work  entrusted  to  him — for  the  many  men 
and  women  whom  he  helped  to  send  out  into  the  great  white 
harvest  field  of  the  world.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  inspiration 
and  comfort  he  was  to  the  missionaries  out  in  the  high  places  of 
the  field,  bearing  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day;  for  all  that  he 
had  become  to  the  converts  in  those  Eastern  lands  who  had  come 
to  know  him  and  to  revere  him.  And  now  Thou  hast  called  him 
hence  to  deserved  and  longed-for  rest  and  reward.  O  God,  keep 
us  faithful  to  the  trust  which  he  left  behind  him.  Remember,  we 
beseech  Thee,  in  tender  mercy,  his  bereaved  household,  the  wife 
and  companion  of  these  many  years ;  let  Thy  most  gracious  solace 
abound  to  her  and  to  the  son  and  daughter  and  all  the  circle  of 
relatives  and  friends.  And  help  us  to  be  here  dedicated  afresh  to 
the  task  remaining  to  us,  that  from  the  honored  dead  we  may  take 


30  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  Thy  servant  gave  the 
last  full  measure  of  his  devotion.  And  at  last,  when  the  strife  for 
us  is  o'er  and  the  battle  done,  when  the  sands  of  time  are  sinking 
and  the  dawn  of  heaven  breaks,  bring  us  to  the  General  Assembly 
and  Church  of  the  First  Bom,  to  the  innumerable  company  of 
angels,  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  and  to  a  vision  of 
Jesus  Christ,  our  risen  and  glorified  Lord.  And  unto  Him  who  is 
able  to  keep  us  from  falhng  and  to  present  us  at  last  faultless  before 
His  throne  with  exceeding  joy,  unto  Him  be  glory  and  honor, 
dominion  and  power,  both  now  and  forever.     Amen. 


MEMORIAL   SERVICE 


■ 

ffi 

emorial  ^ejctjite 

Ket).  ^enrp  JlSftcbie  Cobb,  D.D. 

tfoiuepenDine  6<crrt8i;  of  tt)(  VoarH  e( 
JFoin(sn  di9t9eiDn0,  C&tfonnrtt 
St>ui((>  in  america 
aj>.  t88M910 

^^^ 

Collefffate  BefotmeO  Cbutcb 

SZBfA  4^D  Abmuf  anO  Srbmt;>0et)m^  6t 
iRelD  j'orb  {Tit; 

lAinrtern  ten,  at  ^er  o'tlod 

%\ft  ^txWt 


Senior  JUinistcr 

CoIItffiate  KeforraeJ  ei)ttrcl),  JlJleto  Porfe 

Cj)airman  ©iccctttitie  Committee,  ^oarS  of  jForeiffn  iWisgions 

(i^rgan  ©oluntar^ 

J^^mn  Spa*  489:  "Ask  Ye  What  Great  Thing  I  Know." 

31nt)ocation  anD  Scripture: 

The  Reverend  Professor  J.  Preston  Searle,  D.D., 
Vice-President,  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

0Dt)re00: 

The  Reverend  John  G.  Fagg,  D.D., 
President,  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

The  Reverend  William  I.  Chamberlain,  Ph.D. 

^prai?er: 

The  Reverend  S.  M.  Zwemer,  D.D. 

^^mn  ^0*  845:  "Abide  with  Me,  Fast  Falls  the  Eventide." 

The  Reverend  Cornelius  H.  Patton,  D.D., 

Secretary,  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions. 

^ouwsis: 

Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  D.D., 

Secretary,  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 


prater: 

The  Reverend  James  I.  Vance,  D.D., 

President  Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  R.C.A. 

J^^mn  i^O.  288:  "The  Strife  Is  O'er,  the  Battle  Done." 

il^unc  SDimtccisi 

St.  Luke  ii :  29. 
Lord,  now  lettest  thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  according  to 

Thy  word. 
For  mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation. 
Which  Thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face  of  all  people; 
To  be  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles  and  to  be  the  glory  of  Thy 

people  Israel. 
Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost; 
As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now  and  ever  shall  be :  world  without 

end.    Amen. 

WmtHittion* 


%' 


Written  bg  Sr.  CSabb,  mtiilr  a  iSijBieionarg  in  Prrsia,  ^.9.  laSS 

'  HE  way  is  dark,  my  Father !     Cloud  on  cloud 
Is  gathering  thickly  o'er  my  head,  and  loud 
The  thunders  roar  above  me.     See,  I  stand 
Like  one  bewildered  !     Father,  take  my  hand, 
And  through  the  gloom 
Lead  safely  home 
Thy  child  ! 

The  day  goes  fast,  my  Father !     And  the  night 
Is  drawing  darkly  down.     My  faithless  sight 
Sees  ghostly  visions.     Fears,  a  spectral  band. 
Encompass  me.     O  Father !     Take  my  hand, 

And  from  the  night 

Lead  up  to  light 
Thy  child ! 

The  way  is  long,  my  Father !     And  my  soul 
Longs  for  the  rest  and  quiet  of  the  goal ; 
While  yet  I  journey  through  this  weary  land, 
Keep  me  from  wandering.     Father,  take  my  hand ; 

Quickly  and  straight 

Lead  to  heaven's  gate 
Thy  child ! 
The  path  is  rough,  my  Father !     Many  a  thorn 
Has  pierced  me;  and  my  weary  feet,  all  torn 
And  bleeding,  mark  the  way.     Yet  thy  command 
Bids  me  press  forward.     Father,  take  my  hand. 

Then  safe  and  blest, 

Lead  up  to  rest 
Thy  child  1 

The  throng  is  great,  my  Father !     Many  a  doubt 
And  fear  and  danger  compass  me  about ; 
And  foes  oppress  me  sore.     I  cannot  stand 
Or  go  alone.     O  Father !  take  my  hand. 

And  through  the  throng 

Lead  safe  along 
Thy  child ! 

The  cross  is  heavy,  Father !     I  have  borne 
It  long  and  still  do  bear  it.     Let  my  worn 
And  fainting  spirit  rise  to  that  blest  land 
Where  crowns  are  given.     Father,  take  my  hand. 
And  reaching  down, 
Lead  to  the  crown 
Thy  child  ! 
[Note:  "The  Gracious  Answer,"  p.  47.] 


INVOCATION:   DR.  SEARLE 

OTHOU  the  Triune  God  of  our  Salvation,  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  we  praise 
Thee  for  the  revelation  Thou  hast  made;  we  praise  Thee 
for  the  blessed  relationship  to  which  Thou  dost  call  us  with  Thyself 
and  with  Thy  dear  Son,  a  relationship  that  is  enduring ;  we  thank 
Thee  for  the  high  and  holy  service  which  we  begin  here,  and  which, 
too,  is  enduring ;  we  thank  Thee  for  the  multitudes  who  have  been 
called  by  Thy  Spirit  to  this  service,  and  who  have  known  the  pre- 
ciousness  of  Thy  grace,  and  who  have  been  gathered  into  Thy 
rest ;  and  we  thank  Thee  for  another  life  lived  in  Thy  fear  and  Thy 
love,  lived  in  close  fellowship  with  Thy  dear  Son,  fruitful  and 
blessed  in  things  measureless  to  our  vision,  through  Thy  grace ;  we 
thank  Thee  for  another  life  finished  here,  having  kept  the  Faith, 
and  for  that  life  as  it  is  lived  now  before  Thee,  Grant,  we  pray 
Thee,  that  we  may  come  into  Thy  presence  this  afternoon  to  be 
guided  by  Thy  Spirit  in  each  moment  of  this  Special  Service.  May 
our  hearts  go  out  to  Thee,  and  may  we  hear  from  Thee  the  truths 
that  shall  inspire  us  and  strengthen  us  for  faithfulness,  and  shall 
deepen  our  joy  in  our  Lord ;  so  may  this  whole  service  redound  to 
Thy  glory  and  to  the  upbuilding  of  Thy  Kingdom  in  our  hearts, 
and  to  Thy  great  name,  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit,  one  God, 
and  our  God,  shall  be  all  the  praise  now  and  forever.     Amen. 

Reading  of  the  Fifth  Chapter  of  Second  Corinthians  and 
Twenty- SECOND  Chapter  of  Revelation. 

Dr.  Coe  :  Our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  has  been,  during  the 
year,  deprived  not  only  of  its  Senior  Corresponding  Secretary  but  of 
its  President,  our  dear  friend.  Dr.  Hutton,  who  was  taken  from  us 
in  the  month  of  December.  With  great  unanimity  Dr.  Fagg  has 
been  elected  to  the  position  which  Dr.  Hutton  filled,  and  he  will  now 
speak  to  us  as  the  President  of  that  Board. 


ADDRESS:   DR.  FAGG 

Some  one  has  well  said  that  the  record  of  a  great  and  pure  per- 
sonality is  the  best  bequest  of  time.  It  is  such  a  record  which  we 
are  calling  in  brief  and  affectionate  review  this  afternoon. 

Henry  Nitchie  Cobb  was  one  of  God's  greatest  gifts  to  our  Re- 
formed Church  in  all  her  history.  He  was  one  of  her  mightiest 
assets  while  he  lived  and  the  memory  of  his  life  will  be  to  her  a 
legacy  most  precious.  He  lived,  he  lives  and  he  will  never  die. 
He  was  a  man  of  noble  proportions  in  physique.  He  was  a  man  of 
height  and  breadth  and  depth,  in  mind,  in  character  and  in  service. 
What  high  powers  he  brought  to  his  work  as  Secretary  of  State  for 
breign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church,  as  he  himself  designated 

s^Js^ion  at  his  Twenty-fifth  Anniversary  in  office  two  years  ago. 
was  an  imperial  thinker.  Some  men  think  in  feet  and  inches ; 
he  thought  in  countries,  empires,  continents.  When  in  theAdiron- 
dacks  he  once  said  to  me :  "I  never  see  a  mountain  without  feeling 
a  challenge  to  me  from  it,  as  if  it  were  saying  to  me : '  Come  up  and 
see  the  kingdoms  which  I  have  to  show  you."  That  summer,  ten 
years  ago,  we  climbed  Whiteface  together.  As  we  went  up  I  re- 
member his  saying:  "Oh,  what  a  splendid  text  to  preach  from, 
those  words  which  grand  old  Caleb  addressed  to  Joshua  when  he 
said,  'Now,  therefore,  give  me  this  mountain.' "  His  soul  dwelt  in 
a  realm  of  large  horizons.  His  was  the  passion,  the  subHme  pas- 
sion of  winning  a  world  to  Christ.  What  unwearied  application 
was  his.  He  fulfilled  those  words  in  the  book  of  Ezekiel,  where  it  is 
said:  "They  shall  sever  out  men  of  continual  employment."  He 
knew  little  of  the  gospel  of  relaxation.  He  was  "by  thronging 
duties  pressed."  He  bore  the  whole  burden  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sionary work,  pifMltelly  the  whole  burden  for  ten  years.  He 
thought  out  its  pffeblems,  problems  the  magnitude,  the  weight,  the 
solemn  significance  of  which  many  who  are  unacquainted  with  this 
work  cannot  possibly  imagine.  He  wrote  every  letter  to  all  our 
foreign  missions  with  his  own  right  hand  for  sixteen  successive 


40  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

years.  For  all  those  years  he  did  not  have  what  even  St.  Paul,  the 
first  missionary  propagandist  had,  an  amanuensis.  I  wonder  if  we 
do  not  feel  sorry  and  ashamed  of  ourselves  today  that  we  have  per- 
mitted it.  And,  oh,  what  fine  workmanship  his  letter  writing  was. 
His  letters  bore  the  grace  and  courtesy  of  a  Chesterfield.  They 
bore  the  foresight  and  the  breadth  of  a  statesman,  the  common 
sense  of  a  man  of  business.  They  overflowed  with  the  concern  and 
affection  of  the  letters  of  St.  Paul.  He  was  a  master  in  details. 
La  Bruyere's  motto,  "The  best  in  the  least, "was  his.  Nothing 
ever  bore  the  mark  of  haste,  or  strain ;  everything  was  carefully  con- 
sidered, nothing  was  slighted.  Thoroughness  was  written  every- 
where on  everything  he  did.  He  did  not  shrink  from  hard  tasks. 
He  felt  the  challenge  and  fascination  of  difficulty.  What  he  said 
at  his  college  class  meeting,  the  meeting  of  the  Yale  Class  of  1855, 
was  altogether  characteristic  of  the  man.  In  the  course  of  the 
meeting  one  member  of  the  class  got  up  and  said  that  he  was  glad 
that  he  was  getting  old  and  that  he  was  soon  to  pass  away  and 
leave  these  problems  to  younger  men.  When  Dr.  Cobb  got  up  he 
said :  "I  thank  God  that  I  am  living  in  a  day  when  there  are  such 
great  problems  to  solve,  and  when  I  have  an  opportunity  to  take 
part  in  some  of  this  great  work  that  is  doing  for  the  glory  of  God." 
Such  men  get  something  done.  No  wonder  that  the  work  grew 
under  his  fostering  care ;  no  wonder  that  the  Church  moved  forward 
under  his  constant  urgency  and  his  unquenched  and  unquenchable 
enthusiasm.  Enlarger  of  the  Kingdom — Mehrer  des  Reiches — is  a 
title  of  the  highest  honor  which  the  Germans  give  only  to  a  few  of 
their  greatest  warriors  and  their  greatest  statesmen.  We  give  it 
unhesitatingly  today  to  our  beloved  and  now  crowned  leader. 

What  a  wealth  of  lofty  and  gracious  personal  qualities  were  his. 
His  was  the  simplicity  of  Christ,  his  was  the  candor  of  Christ,  his 
was  the  meekness  of  Christ,  his  was  the  gentleness  of  Christ ;  his 
was  the  tender  heartedness,  the  great  heartedness,  the  high  hearted- 
ness,  the  strong  heartedness  of  Christ.  His  was  the  most  real  and 
complete  devotion  to  Christ.  "  At  the  center  of  all  his  activities  we 
find  a  man  on  his  knees,  praying  for  the  consecrated  frame  and  the 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  41 

undivided  surrender."  Our  thoughts  follow  him  this  afternoon,  as 
he  has  gone  to  join  that  great  company,  among  whom  are  Verbeck 
and  Brown,  Talmage  and  Kip  and  Otte,  John  Scudder,  William 
Scudder,  Joseph  Scudder,  Ezekiel  Scudder,  and  Heeren  and 
Hekhuis  and  Jacob  Chamberlain,  Peter  Zwemer  and  Wiersum  and 
Stone,  who  are  each  some  work  sublime,  forever  working  in  the 
spacious  tracts  of  that  great  land.  We  can  never  forget  him.  We 
shall  miss  him  for  many  a  long  day.     But  we  are  confident  that 

The  afterglow  of  his  devoted  life 

Will  lead  others  to  do  and  dare  for  Christ 

And  win  for  Him,  through  darkness,  pain  and  strife. 


Dr.  Coe  :  It  was  a  great  joy  to  Dr.  Cobb  when  Dr.  Chamber- 
lain, whom  he  had  known  from  boyhood,  came  into  office  as  his 
associate  and  his  designated  successor.  Dr.  Chamberlain  will 
speak  this  afternoon,  however,  rather  as  a  representative  of  the 
missionaries  among  whom  he  labored  for  so  many  years. 


ADDRESS:   DR.  CHAMBERLAIN 

I  am  here  today  in  response  to  a  filial  duty  of  a  two-fold  char- 
acter. Two  years  ago  this  month  and  almost  on  this  day  Dr.  Cobb 
paid  a  pubhc  tribute  in  this  city  to  the  memory  of  my  revered 
father,  his  friend  in  Ufe  and  his  friend  in  death.  It  is  the  sacred 
privilege  of  the  son  to  pay  in  some  small  measure  the  debt  of  the 
father  to  his  friend  and  to  lay  upon  the  altar  of  Dr.  Cobb's  devotion 
to  a  cause  dear  to  them  both  a  wreath  of  love  and  a  tribute  of 
praise. 

This  duty  rests  upon  me  by  reason  of  still  another  filial  relation- 
ship. During  the  years  of  my  academic  and  divinity  courses  in 
college  and  seminary,  those  restless  years  of  youth.  Dr.  Cobb  stood 
to  me  in  the  place  of  a  father  and  a  guide.  Of  that  relationship,  its 
tenderness  and  its  closeness,  I  may  not  now  speak.  It  is  ap- 
pointed to  me  to  speak  of  a  still  wider  relationship,  that  of 
the  missionaries  in  the  field  with  the  Corresponding  Secretary  at 
home,  a  relationship  which  continued  with  increasing  intimacy  and 
confidence  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  In  the  long  and 
sweet  story  of  human  associations  which,  we  all  know,  began  in  the 
great  heart  of  God  Himself,  there  is  perhaps  nothing  so  tender  and 
yet  so  strong  as  the  relationship  which  grows  out  of  the  fellowship 
of  a  foreign  service  in  the  cause  of  religion.  To  the  one  who  stands 
as  a  representative  of  the  Church  and  the  country  and  sometimes 
even  of  the  family  to  those  exiled  ones,  for  the  Master's  sake,  whose 
home  circle  diminishes  with  the  passing  years,  there  is  grantfed  an 
intimacy  which  is  not  ordinarily  exchanged  among  men.  Meas- 
ured by  this  standard  the  character  of  Dr.  Cobb's  relation  to  the 
missionaries  was  ideal.  Indeed,  an  illustration  of  that  ideal  rela- 
tionship with  the  missionaries  is  beautifully  shown  in  the  closing 
sentence  in  a  letter  to  a  missionary  under  appointment  which  came 
to  me  only  yesterday : 

"May  I  thank  you  for  the  photograph  you  kindly  sent  me?  I 
enjoyed  exceedingly  the  interview  I  had  with  you  the  other  day, 


44  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

and  shall  be  very  glad  if,  under  the  providence  of  God,  I  am  per- 
mitted to  have  that  relationship  with  you  as  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary which  has  been  such  a  pleasure  to  me  in  the  case  of  so  many 
other  missionaries." 

This,  then,  is  the  basis  of  that  ideal  relationship  between  the 
missionary  and  the  secretary,  wherein  the  missionary  both  trusts 
his  leader  and  loves  his  friend.  This  statement  is  equally  appli- 
cable to  all  the  missionaries  and  all  the  missionary  fields.  It  is  so 
easy  for  even  the  most  experienced  foreign  mission  secretary  to 
allow  his  interest  to  follow  the  line  of  special  conditions,  and  if  it  is 
so  difficult  to  maintain  at  all  times  and  under  all  conditions  a  bal- 
ance of  judgment  between  the  various  missions,  that  one  who  at- 
tains and  maintains  that  attitude  toward  all  the  missions  may  in 
very  truth  and  without  exaggeration  be  said  to  occupy  not  only  an 
ideal  but  a  unique  relationship.  I  think  we  may  claim,  even  in 
this  presence,  that  Dr.  Cobb  was  not  only  an  ideal,  but  a  unique 
Corresponding  Secretary. 

The  question  arises  in  our  minds :  What  was  the  reason  for  the 
singular  felicity  of  his  relationship  with  the  missionaries  upon  the 
field  ?  Did  it  arise  from  the  environment  in  which  his  service  was 
spent  in  behalf  of  the  missionaries  ?  I  think  it  a  happy  circum- 
stance that  in  these  days  we  have  come  to  realize  that  missionaries 
are  not  very  different  from  ourselves.  The  halo  has  been  re- 
moved and  the  traditional  estimate  has  been  somewhat  modi- 
fied. We  have  come  to  realize  that  they  have,  with  us,  like  hands 
and  feet  and  like  dimensions  and  feelings  and  temptations.  I 
think  we  may  not  claim,  even  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mission- 
aries, that  this  singular  felicity  of  his  relationship  arose  alone, 
or  even  primarily,  from  the  missionaries*  relationship  with  him- 
self. Rather,  may  we  say,  that  it  arose  from  a  singular  and 
peculiar  fitness  in  Dr.  Cobb  himself  for  his  high  office. 

What,  then,  were  some  of  the  qualities  and  some  of  the  character- 
istics that  rendered  him  so  peculiarly  happy  in  all  his  relations  with 
the  missionaries  ?  A  very  simple  and  brief  analysis  reveals  to 
us,  I  think,  a  three-fold  equipment  as  related  to  the  side  of  the 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  45 

missionaries  and  the  fields — an  acquired  equipment,  a  personal 
equipment  and  a  spiritual  equipment ;  not  so,  possibly,  in  the  order 
of  time,  but  so,  probably,  in  the  order  of  development. 

The  acquired  equipment  was  that  which  was  derived  from 
circumstances.  I  include  among  these  his  experience  as  a  mis- 
sionary. Though  short  it  was  intense,  and  it  was  the  background 
for  many  years  of  sympathetic  relations  with  the  missionaries  en- 
gaged in  a  like  service.  A  second  influence  was  the  insight  which 
he  gained  by  reason  of  long  and  personal  and  close  fellowship 
with  the  missionaries  themselves,  by  reason  of  which  it  was  his 
proud  claim  that  every  missionary,  man  or  woman,  that  went  to  the 
field  during  his  twenty-seven  years  of  service  was  personally  known 
to  him,  not  because  of  mere  acquaintance,  but  by  reason  of  per- 
sonal ties  established  with  them.  Not  only  was  this  gained  from 
personal  relationship  at  home  but  from  a  further  relationship 
gained  by  prolonged  visits  to  the  field.  To  China  his  visits  meant 
a  greater  effectiveness  of  work  by  reason  of  the  settlement  of  a 
policy  long  in  question ;  to  Japan  they  meant  a  greater  power  and  a 
greater  efficiency  of  work  by  reason  of  closer  relations  between  the 
Japanese  Church  and  the  missionaries  upon  the  field ;  to  India  those 
visits  meant  a  greater  joy  for  the  Jubilee  time  and  to  Arabia  they 
meant  a  great  increase  of  work  in  that  new  and  interesting  field. 
The  third  element  in  this  acquired  equipment  was,  one  which  has 
impressed  me  more  and  more,  his  knowledge  gained  from  careful 
reading  and  study  of  mission  literature  and  reports.  I  frequently 
observed  his  reading  of  the  great  biographies  and  the  recent  books 
on  mission  policy  and  administration,  and  his  careful  perusal  of 
the  reports  of  missionary  conferences.  He  thus  acquired  an  ex- 
perience, an  insight  and  a  knowledge  constituting  a  valuable 
equipment. 

But  there  was  a  second  and  fuller  equipment  which  belonged  to 
our  beloved  Secretary.  This  was  the  personal,  which  was  derived 
very  largely  from  a  natural  endowment  and  from  his  knowledge  of 
men  and  human  nature.  This  includes  a  long  list.  His  was  a 
sympathy  wide  and  deep ;  a  courtesy  never  failing ;  a  tact  that  seldom 


46  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

erred ;  a  patience  always  at  his  command ;  a  self  control  which  was 
greater  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  was  not  altogether  perhaps 
natural.  And  there  were  other  qualities  in  this  personal  equip- 
ment: a  broadness  of  mind,  which  enabled  him  to  enter  into 
sympathy  with  the  missionary  from  his  point  of  view;  a  sanity 
and  a  balance,  which  we  find  of  great  value  in  its  application  to 
problems  at  home  and  abroad;  a  judgement  sound  and  true;  a 
wisdom  broad  and  informed,  and  a  courage  without  which  his 
work  would  not  have  been  effective. 

Still  further  we  may  say  that  there  was  a  personal  equipment  of 
loyalty  to  the  missionary.  How  we  have  learned  at  our  council 
table  at  home  Dr.  Cobb's  consistent  loyalty  to  the  missionary! 
Then,  again,  the  singularly  fine  quahty  of  his  literary  talent,  which 
through  these  many  years  has  characterized  his  relationship  with 
the  missionaries  in  his  correspondence.  There  was  also  his  ca- 
pacity for  industry,  which  gave  him  his  remarkable  knowledge  of 
detail ;  his  capacity  for  business  in  administration,  which  gave  him 
his  place  as  the  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  at  the 
Ecumenical  Conference  of  1900,  and  membership  on  most  of  the 
strong  interdenominational  missionary  committees  in  this  country ; 
and,  finally,  his  great  capacity  for  friendship,  attracting  to  himself 
the  intimacy  of  many  and  the  love  of  all. 

His  last  equipment  was,  however,  the  most  important  of  all — 
the  Spiritual.  This  was  derived  from  a  close  and  personal  walk 
with  God.  I  would  speak  here  of  the  simplicity  of  his  character, 
of  the  beauty  of  it  in  all  his  relations.  I  would  speak  again  of  his 
sincerity,  the  reality  of  it  in  his  relations  with  his  fellow  men.  I 
would  speak  also  of  his  humility,  the  tenderness  of  it  in  his  walk 
with  God. 

These  were  some  of  the  fundamental  elements  in  his  spiritual 
equipment,  so  constantly  manifested  to  those  at  home  in  the  closest  in- 
timacies of  his  life,  and  to  those  associated  with  him  in  their  activi- 
ties far  hence.  I  would  speak  yet  again  here  of  the  unselfishness  of 
his  aims,  of  his  devotion  to  his  duty  and,  last  of  all,  and  perhaps  as  the 
fundamental  equipment  of  all,  I  would  speak  of  his  power  in  prayer. 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  47 

Those  who  have  come  under  the  influence  of  that  prayerful  spirit  of 
our  Secretary  in  the  secret  place  of  the  home ;  those  who  have  gath- 
ered strength  from  it  as  he  led  them  in  their  approach  to  the  throne 
of  grace  in  the  distant  places  of  the  missionary  field ;  those  who  have 
prayed  with  him  as  he  led  them  at  the  Thursday  noon  meetings  in 
the  office  in  New  York,  know  something  of  his  power  in  prayer. 
Of  this  supreme  spiritual  gift  we  have  a  beautiful  if  pathetic  illus- 
tration in  the  prayer  which  Dr.  Cobb  wrote  while  a  missionary  in 
Persia,  which  appears  on  the  Order  of  Service:  "Father,  Take  My 
Hand."  May  I  read  to  you  "The  Gracious  Answer"  of  God  to 
this  prayer  of  His  servant,  written  by  Dr.  Cobb  also  during  his  mis- 
sionary career?  As  I  read,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  answer  follows 
the  petition  of  each  stanza : 


The  Gracious  Answer 

The  way  is  dark,  my  child  !     But  leads  to  light, 
I  would  not  always  have  thee  walk  by  sight. 
My  dealings  now  thou  canst  not  understand. 
I  meant  it  so ;  but  I  will  take  thy  hand, 

And  through  the  gloom 

Lead  safely  home 
My  child  ! 

The  day  goes  fast,  my  child  !     But  is  the  night 
Darker  to  me  than  day  ?     In  me  is  light ! 
Keep  close  to  me  and  every  spectral  band 
Of  fear  shall  vanish.     I  will  take  thy  hand 

And  through  the  night 

Lead  up  to  light 

My  child ! 

The  way  is  long,  my  child  !     But  it  shall  be 
Not  one  step  longer  than  is  best  for  thee ; 
And  thou  shalt  know  at  last,  when  thou  shalt  stand 
Safe  at  the  goal  how  I  did  take  thy  hand. 

And  quick  and  straight 

Lead  to  Heaven's  gate 
My  child  ! 


48  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 


The  path  is  rough,  my  child  !     But,  oh,  how  sweet 
Will  be  the  rest,  for  weary  pilgrims  meet, 
When  thou  shalt  reach  the  borders  of  that  land 
To  which  I  lead  thee,  as  I  take  thy  hand. 

And  safe  and  blest 

With  me  shalt  rest 
My  child ! 

The  throng  is  great,  my  child  1     But  at  thy  side 
Thy  Father  walks;  then  be  not  terrified, 
For  I  am  with  thee;  will  thy  foes  command 
To  let  thee  freely  pass;  will  take  thy  hand, 

And  through  the  throng 

Lead  safe  along 
My  child ! 

The  cross  is  heavy,  child  !     Yet  there  was  One 
Who  bore  a  heavier  for  thee ;  my  Son, 
My  Well-beloved  Son.     For  Him  bear  thine,  and  stand 
With  Him  at  last,  and  from  thy  Father's  hand 

The  cross  laid  down, 

Receive  a  crown. 
My  child ! 


PRAYER:   DR.  ZWEMER 

O  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  dwelling  place  in  all  generations, 
and  the  dwelling  place  of  Thy  people  and  the  dwelling  place  of  Thy 
servant  whose  memory  is  so  precious  to  us  this  day.  Thou  art  the 
God  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  Covenant  God;  Thou 
art  not  the  God  of  the  dead  but  of  the  living,  for  all  live  to  Thee,  and 
Thou  art  their  God  now  and  our  God,  and,  therefore,  our  hearts 
are  comforted.  Thou  hast  taken  away  a  friend  and  a  father  from 
all  Thy  missionaries  who  knew  him  and  loved  him,  but  Thou  hast 
not  left  us  comfortless.  The  Holy  Spirit  who  was  with  our  friend 
and  with  our  father  here  abides  with  the  lonely  missionaries  in  the 
field,  and  this  day,  O  God,  we  bow  our  heads  and  our  hearts  in 
submission  to  Thy  will.  We  thank  Thee,  our  Heavenly  Father, 
for  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  revealed  in  such  a  life  and 
service,  and  for  the  loving  kindness  and  the  tenderness  of  our  God. 
We  thank  Thee,  O  Lord,  this  day  with  all  our  missionaries  in  the 
field,  and  with  those  who  are  before  Thy  face,  for  the  life  of  this 
Thy  servant,  for  all  he  w^as  and  did  and  suffered  and  served,  and 
inherited,  for  the  cross  which  he  bore  so  patiently,  and  for  the 
crown  which  he  won  so  worthily.  We  thank  Thee  for  his  work  and 
faith.  O  God,  Thou  alone  knowest  the  sterling,  stalwart  faith  of 
Thy  servant  in  the  days  when  faith  was  weak  and  small,  and  when 
those  that  believed  large  things  were  so  few ;  but  Thou  didst  give 
him  faith  for  leadership  and  we  thank  Thee.  We  thank  Thee  for 
his  labor  of  love,  for  the  toil  of  the  oflice  and  the  toil  among  the 
churches,  and  the  toil,  unwearying  and  unwearied,  for  Thy  mis- 
sionaries, his  missionaries,  the  missionaries  of  our  Church ;  and  we 
thank  Thee  for  his  patience — patience  with  the  work  and  the 
workers  at  home  and  abroad.  We  thank  Thee,  O  Lord  our  God, 
for  his  skill  in  administration ;  we  thank  Thee  for  his  talent  of  lead- 
ership ;  we  thank  Thee  for  his  faithfulness  in  ofiice ;  but  we  thank 
Thee  most  of  all,  O  God,  for  that  which  was  most  precious  to  us  in 
Thy  serv^ant — his  sympathy  and  his  prayers.     We  thank  Thee,  O 


50  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

Lord  our  God,  that  because  he  was  Thy  missionary  he  was  able  to 
sympathize  with  those  whom  Thou  hast  called  to  do  Thy  work. 
Because  he  was  tempted  at  all  points  as  they  were  and,  like  as  they 
were,  not  without  sin,  that  he  was  able  to  suffer  this  and  to  succor 
those  that  were  tempted.  We  praise  Thee,  O  God,  this  afternoon, 
for  Thy  exceeding  great  love  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  Thou 
hast  magnified  Thy  Son  in  Thy  servant,  that  the  testimony  of  his 
life,  in  his  words  and  in  his  works  which  follow  him,  leaves  nothing 
uncertain  as  to  the  strength  of  his  character  and  the  strength  of  his 
life  and  the  rock  and  the  foundations  of  his  hope.  Thou,  O 
Christ,  wert  with  him;  Thou,  O  Christ,  art  with  us,  and  this  after- 
noon we  thank  Thee  that  he  who  gave  himself  so  freely  and  so  fully 
to  Thy  service  and  to  the  service  of  our  beloved  Church  is  now 
receiving  the  fulfilment  of  Thy  own  promise,  good  measure  pressed 
down,  shaken  together,  running  over  of  joy  everlasting  and  peace 
that  passeth  all  understanding  and  a  rest  that  knows  no  end. 
Moses,  Thy  servant,  is  dead.  O  Lord  our  God,  help  us  to  hear  Thy 
voice  this  afternoon  above  his  voice  which  we  cannot  cease  hearing, 
and  above  the  voices  of  his  beloved  associates  and  the  voices  of 
those  who  knew  him  and  loved  him.  Help  us  to  hear  Thy  voice. 
"Moses,  my  servant,  is  dead;  now,  therefore,  arise,  go  over  this 
Jordan,  Thou  and  all  this  people,  unto  the  land  which  I  do  give  to 
them,  even  to  the  Children  of  Israel.  Every  place  that  the  sole  of 
thy  feet  shall  tread  upon  that  have  I  given  unto  you,  as  I  said  unto 
Moses." 

Baptize  us  for  the  dead.  Roll  the  burden  of  this  great  work, 
also,  upon  our  hearts  and  upon  our  shoulders  as  it  was  upon  the 
heart  and  the  shoulders,  the  manly  shoulders,  of  Thy  servant. 
And  grant,  O  God,  that  we  may  honor  him  not  by  speaking  of 
what  he  did  and  accomplished  and  served  and  suffered,  but  by  fin- 
ishing the  work  which  he  himself  as  Thy  messenger  and  Thy  spokes- 
man has  so  often  pressed  upon  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the  people  of 
our  Church.  O  Lord  our  God,  we  pray  Thee  that  Thou  wilt  bap- 
tize the  missionaries  with  the  spirit,  baptize  them  for  the  dead. 
Give  them  his  patience  and  long  suffering  and  tenderness  and  sym- 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  51 

pathy  and  ability  and,  above  all,  his  power  of  prayer  and  his 
patience.  And  grant,  O  God,  this  afternoon  as  we  lay  tribute  to 
Thy  glory  and  Thy  cross  on  the  memory  of  Thy  servant,  that  we 
may  walk  henceforth  in  the  inspiration  of  such  a  life  on  higher 
levels  and  more  ample  service  and  unto  larger  horizon  of  vision  and 
accomplishments,  seeing  we  are  compassed  about  this  day  as  we 
have  never  been  by  a  greater  company  of  those  who  have  inherited 
the  light  and  the  joy  of  Thy  glory.  Help  us  to  lay  aside  every 
weight  that  does  so  easily  beset  us  in  the  task  of  evangelizing  the 
world  for  which  Christ  died,  and  to  run  with  patience  the  race  that 
is  set  before  us,  looking  not  back  to  the  dead  or  around  to  the  living, 
but  looking  up  unto  Jesus,  who  is  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our 
faith  and  of  our  tasks.     And  we  ask  it  for  his  glory.  Amen. 


Dr.  Coe  :  As  has  already  been  said,  Dr.  Cobb  began  his  minis- 
try as  a  missionary  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions,  and  his  personal  relations  with  that  Board  were 
close  and  constant.  A  message  of  honor  and  sympathy  from  that 
great  Missionary  Society  will  be  brought  this  afternoon  by  Dr. 
Patton,  its  Secretary. 


•     ADDRESS:   DR.  PATTON 

It  is  a  very  great  privilege  to  join  in  this  service  and  to  bring  the 
greetings  and  appreciations  of  the  officers  of  the  American  Board. 
We  had  hoped  that  our  President,  Dr.  Capen,  would  be  here,  and 
that  was  his  own  strong  desire,  as  he  held  Dr.  Cobb  in  very  deep 
affection  and  great  admiration ;  but  he  is  held  by  imperative  engage- 
ments.    He  has  asked  me  to  read  this  message  to  you : 

"  Dr.  Cobb  was  universally  recognized  as  one  of  our  great  mis- 
sionary statesmen.  The  early  years  spent  as  a  foreign  missionary 
in  Persia  in  the  sers^ice  of  our  Board  gave  him  an  experience  which 
fitted  him  in  an  unusual  degree  for  his  later  duties  in  the  home 
office.  This  experience  made  it  possible  for  him  to  enter  into  sym- 
pathy and  close  fellowship  with  men  and  women  who  were  bearing 
heavy  burdens  at  the  front.  He  was  unerring  in  his  judgments; 
his  knowledge  of  men  and  things  was  so  extensive  that  he  rarely 
made  an  error;  it  was  safe  to  follow  his  conclusion.  He  seemed 
never  to  be  thrown  from  his  balance,  for  he  had  poise  and  sanity 
for  every  emergency.  He  combined  strength  of  purpose  with  a 
kind  and  loving  spirit,  so  that  he  made  his  influence  felt  without 
ever  injuring  the  feelings  of  others  whom  he  might  be  compelled  to 
oppose.  All  who  met  him  felt  the  power  of  his  Christian  pur- 
pose. 

"There  was  another  characteristic  of  Dr.  Cobb's  which  ought  to 
be  noted — he  never  grew  old.  He  did  not  feel  as  though  the  best 
days  were  in  the  past ;  the  best  things  for  him  were  to  come.  As  an 
illustration  of  this,  no  one  entered  more  quickly  than  he  into  the 
plans  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement.  At  the  very  first 
meeting  of  the  officers  of  the  boards,  when  these  plans  were  first 
presented,  he  was  among  the  first  to  recognize  its  possibilities,  and 
with  no  uncertain  voice  expressed  his  approval. 

"While  we  shall  all  miss  him  in  our  councils  this  will  be  espe- 
cially true  of  you  in  the  home  office  and  of  the  members  of  your 
committee  who  were  brought  so  constantly  in  touch  with  him. 


54  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

There  will  be  sadness  in  the  hearts  of  all  your  missionaries  who 
had  in  him  a  brother  and  friend. 

"  I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  this  further  personal  word.  When 
ten  years  ago  I  was  elected  President  of  the  American  Board  I  felt 
that  the  burden  was  a  heavy  one,  especially  in  the  thought  of  the 
men  who  had  preceded  me.  I  shall  never  forget  the  warmth  and 
cordiality  of  the  greeting  I  received  from  Dr.  Cobb  at  the  time  of 
the  Ecumenical  Conference,  when  I  met  him  almost  for  the  first 
time  upon  the  platform  at  Carnegie  Hall.  His  hand  of  welcome 
and  his  words  then  spoken  were  an  inspiration.  That  cordiality 
and  kindly  spirit  he  showed  always  and  everywhere  to  the  end  of 
his  days,  and  I  feel  as  though  I  had  lost  a  loving  and  devoted  friend. 

"While  I  would  express  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  American 
Board  and  for  myself  personally  these  words  of  sincere  sympathy 
and  regard,  there  is  in  all  our  sadness  a  great  note  of  rejoicing  over 
the  life  of  such  a  man.  He  has  been  a  fellow  worker  with  Jesus 
Christ  through  long  years  in  the  noblest  work  in  the  world.  We 
are  the  richer  and  better,  and  the  nations  as  well,  because  he  has 
lived.  He  has  been  faithful  even  unto  death  and  has  already 
looked  into  the  face  of  the  Master  whom  he  loved,  and  heard  from 
His  own  lips  the  glorious  words:  'Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant.     Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  Thy  Lord.' 

"  The  truth  contained  in  these  lines  seems  to  be  especially  appli- 
cable in  what  we  call  the  'death'  but  which  is  really  the  coming 
into  the  larger  hfe  of  Dr.  Cobb : 

'Were  a  star  quenched  on  high 

For  ages  would  its  light 
Still  traveling  downward  from  the  sky 

Shine  on  our  mortal  sight ; 
So,  when  a  great  man  dies 

For  years  beyond  our  ken 
The  light  he  leaves  behind  him  lies 

Upon  the  paths  of  men.' " 

I  am  sure  that  every  one  connected  with  the  American  Board 
will  echo  these  sentiments  of  our  President  and  will  cherish  the 
memory  of  this  great  and  good,  this  noble  man,  as  one  of  the  most 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  55 

precious  heritages  which  we  have,  because  we  do  claim  him  as  our 
own,  almost.  How  very  intimate  have  been  the  relations  of  these 
two  Boards  for  practically  one  hundred  years,  living  together,  like 
two  brothers  in  the  same  home,  of  common  origin,  of  common 
experience,  with  the  same  history,  exhibiting  the  same  ideals,  pro- 
ceeding on  the  same  principles  in  missionary  work,  following  very 
closely  even  the  same  methods  at  home  and  abroad.  When  the 
brothers  went  their  separate  ways  it  was  not  to  be  separated  but 
to  follow  out  their  parallel  courses,  each  one  trying  to  live  out  and 
develop  the  best  things  which  they  had  shared  together,  and  of  all 
the  personalities  which  have  helped  to  combine  these  Boards  so 
closely  together  in  this  brotherhood  of  experience  and  service  Dr. 
Cobb  has  been  the  leading  one,  without  any  doubt.  A  great  deal 
of  it  has  been  through  Dr.  Cobb  on  the  one  side,  and  it  has  come 
almost  in  our  oflEice  to  amount  to  this,  that  we  have  thought  of  this 
holy  fellowship  as  personified  in  this  one  man.  He  seemed  to  us  to 
exemplify  in  his  own  personality  those  qualities  of  faith  and  of 
light  which  we  have  come  to  believe  characterized  the  body  of 
churches  which  he  served,  this  Reformed  Church  in  America,  and 
so  we  have  come  to  think  of  him  to  a  large  extent  as  the  Board 
itself.  Practically  all  our  dealings  this  way  were  with  him,  and  all, 
without  a  single  exception,  were  a  joy  and  a  delight,  without  a  sug- 
gestion of  friction  or  difference.  If  his  relations  to  the  missionaries 
and  to  his  associates,  as  we  have  heard  this  afternoon,  were  ideal, 
I  certainly  can  say  the  same  as  to  his  relations  with  the  American 
Board,  and  I  doubt  not  the  same  is  true  with  all  the  missionary 
boards.  I  like  to  think  of  the  changes  this  man  has  lived  to  see, 
and  which  he  has  had  a  considerable  share  in  bringing  about.  I 
was  speaking  in  Canada  not  long  ago  about  the  remarkable  change 
in  China,  and  I  happened  to  allude  to  a  prayer  meeting,  held  in 
1840,  when  all  the  Christians  at  Hongkong  were  gathered  together 
in  a  room  about  fifteen  feet  square.  A  lady  was  in  the  front  pew. 
I  noticed  her  face  light  up,  and  after  service  she  came  up  and  said 
that  she  was  a  girl  in  London  in  1840,  when  that  prayer  meeting 
had  been  held  in  Hongkong,  and  that  they  had  heard  of  it  and 


56  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

held  meetings  all  through  their  churches  praying  that  God  would 
open  a  door  in  China.  Think  of  one  person  living  to  see  those 
colossal  achievements  in  that  work.  Here  was  Dr.  Cobb,  not  going 
quite  as  far  back  as  that,  and  yet  with  fifty  years  of  active  service 
and  participation  at  home  or  abroad  in  these  things.  What  he  has 
seen  in  China  and  Japan  and  Corea  and  India  and  Persia  and 
Turkey  catches  one's  imagination.  It  makes  one  realize  the 
majesty  of  a  work  like  this,  to  which  he  committed  his  life.  Oh, 
friends,  if  there  is  any  one  thing  in  the  world  which  ought  to  turn 
out  great  men  it  is  this  work  of  foreign  missions ;  if  there  is  any  one 
subject  on  the  face  of  the  earth  wherein  man  ought  to  be  trained 
into  nobility  of  character  and  greatness,  of  judgment  and  breadth  of 
vision,  it  is  at  the  council  tables  of  these  great  foreign  missionary 
organizations.  I  have  no  doubt  it  would  be  his  own  testimony  that 
if  he  has  contributed  something  to  this  work  he  also  has  received  in 
his  own  character  mighty  things  out  of  this  work. 

My  own  acquaintance  with  him  was  so  very  recent  that  I  hesi- 
tate to  mention  it  at  all,  but  I  cannot  forbear  to  speak  of  the  im- 
pression he  made  upon  me  in  the  last  six  years,  of  this  exquisite 
quality  of  kindness  which  all  of  you  know  so  much  about.  He 
reminded  me  of  the  life  of  that  good  Bishop  of  Cambray— Fenelon. 
When  his  district  was  devastated  by  the  English  Army,  their  homes 
burned,  their  cattle  driven  out  into  the  highways,  the  good  Bishop 
came  along  and  they  came  out  to  him  and  told  him  of  their  losses, 
and  he  comforted  them,  sending  them  back  to  their  work  to  rebuild 
the  desolation  by  laying  his  hands  upon  them  and  simply  saying : 
"I  know,  I  know."  I  can  imagine  this  relation,  this  beautiful  rela- 
tion of  sympathy  to  which  allusion  has  been  made,  between  Dr. 
Cobb  as  the  Corresponding  Secretary  and  his  missionaries,  how  on 
one  of  these  visits  to  the  field  about  which  we  have  heard,  when  they 
told  him  of  their  troubles,  he  could  say:  "I  know,  I  understand." 
To  feel  that  Dr.  Cobb  knew  and  understood  was  better  comfort 
than  a  good  many  people  know.  With  that  remarkable  sanity  of 
judgment,  what  a  noble  committeeman  he  was,  absolutely  fair 
toward  men,  with  a  strong  sense  of  justice,  an  honest  willingness  to 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  57 

take  the  other  man's  point  of  view  and  see  things  through  his  eyes, 
and  credit  him  with  his  own  energy  and  judgment.  To  behold 
these — sympathy,  kindness,  sanity,  fairness  —in  such  perfect  poise 
is  a  remarkable  thing.  But  after  all,  dear  friends,  we  know  the 
sources  of  it;  we  know  that  like  every  service  of  this  kind  it  was 
simply  a  following  of  the  great  examplar,  Jesus  Christ.  We  know 
it  was  the  shining  out  through  this  man's  personality  of  those 
qualities  of  the  blessed  Master,  and  all  praise  be  to  Him.  I  know 
that  for  one  I  can  say  that  my  life  is  going  to  be  stronger  and  better 
and,  I  hope,  far  more  useful  because  of  my  even  slight  acquaintance 
with  this  splendid  man,  and  because  I  have  been  able  to  be  here, 
this  afternoon,  to  enter  into  your  fellowship  of  sympathy  and  love. 


Dr.  Coe:  In  recent  years  Dr.  Cobb's  personal  relations  with 
the  officers  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  with 
which  he  has  been  in  constant  conference  in  regard  to  the  great 
problems  which  concern  our  common  interests,  have  been  very  close, 
and  there  is  no  one  who  can  speak  of  them  with  greater  and  deeper 
knowledge  or  intimate  personal  regard  than  our  friend,  Mr.  Speer. 


ADDRESS:   DR.  SPEER 

The  judgments  of  love  are  confessedly  biased  judgments.  That 
is  what  makes  them  true.  It  is  the  bias  of  perfect  faith  and  perfect 
trust  that  lifts  them  above  the  error  of  our  mere  human  opinions 
into  the  truth  and  the  kindly  discernings  of  God.  And  it  is  that 
love  for  Dr.  Cobb  which  is  in  all  our  hearts  here  today  which  en- 
ables us,  as  we  have  been  doing,  to  judge  so  justly  of  what  he  has 
been  and  of  what  he  has  done.  I  rejoice  that  it  is  out  of  twenty 
years  of  intimate  and  filial  fellowship  with  him  that  I  can  come 
down  here  today  representing,  as  Dr.  Coe  has  said,  the  missionary 
organization  which,  perhaps,  of  all  outside  of  his  own  lay  closest 
to  him  in  his  relationship  of  intimacy  in  missionary  service. 

We  counted  him  as  one  of  our  own  missionaries.  The  history 
and  traditions  of  the  old  mission  to  the  Nestorians,  which  had  been 
connected  with  the  American  Board,  passed  over  to  our  own  Church 
at  the  time  of  the  reunion  of  the  Old  and  the  New  School  Churches, 
and  Dr.  Cobb's  name  is  borne  on  the  roll  of  the  missionaries  of  our 
own  body.  During  all  these  years  that  he  has  been  connected  with 
your  own  Board  his  relationships  have  been  almost  as  intimate  and 
as  close  with  ours.  The  identification  of  the  work  of  the  Reformed 
Church  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Japan  unified  their  inter- 
ests and  responsibilities  there,  and  brought  Dr.  Cobb  during  all 
these  years  into  such  association  with  the  officers  of  our  Board  as 
made  us  one  council,  in  one  fellowship,  with  regard  to  the  problems 
in  that  Empire.  If  he  ever  chanced  to  come  in  when  other  affairs 
were  under  consideration  it  was  not  necessary  to  interrupt  that  con- 
sideration, for  it  was  felt  that  he  had  his  rightful  place  in  that  com- 
panionship regarding  any  of  the  problems  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
at  home  or  abroad. 

I  should  like  to  speak  not  only  of  all  we  learned  from  him  and 
have  lost  in  him  in  that  relationship,  but  also  in  a  broader  view. 
I  can  remember  the  first  day,  seventeen  years  ago,  when  the 
representatives  of  the  different  foreign  missionary  societies  of  the 


60  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

United  States  and  Canada  came  together  for  the  first  time,  begin- 
ning those  annual  conferences  which  have  never  been  interrupted, 
and  in  which  Dr.  Cobb  has  always  been  one  of  the  most  beloved 
and  trusted  leaders.  I  think  almost  every  member  of  that  first 
little  gathering  has  passed  away — Dr.  Clark  and  Dr.  Judson  Smith, 
of  the  American  Board;  Dr.  Murdock  and  Dr.  Duncan,  of  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Union ;  Dr.  Peck,  Dr.  Reid  and  Dr.  Baldwin, 
of  the  Methodist  Society;  Dr.  Langford,  of  the  Episcopal  Board; 
Dr.  Chambers,  long  president  of  your  own,  and  Dr.  Cole,  Dr.  Ellen- 
wood  and  Dr.  Gillespie,  of  our  own;  Dr.  Dales  and  Dr.  Barr,  of 
the  United  Presbyterian,  and,  not  the  least  of  that  great  company, 
the  dear  one  whose  memory  we  are  gathered  here  today  to  honor. 
He  was  almost  the  last  one  of  that  older  company  of  men  who  car- 
ried the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  through  those  days  when  the 
foundation  was  needed  to  be  laid,  when  it  had  to  be  justified  and 
vindicated,  before  ever  it  had  come  to  its  own,  as  it  has  now  in  the 
days  of  us  who  have  followed  those  who  have  passed  beyond. 

We  rejoice  this  day  in  the  memory  of  all  that  Dr.  Cobb  has  been 
in  those  relations.  The  memorial  of  the  Classis  that  has  been  pre- 
sented and  the  words  which  Dr.  Patton  has  just  spoken  lay  just 
emphasis  upon  the  wisdom  of  his  counsel,  the  sobriety  and  sanity  of 
his  judgments.  There  was  no  one  whose  judgments  were  more 
trustfully  anticipated  than  his,  or  whose  judgments  were  less  im- 
personal than  his,  or  more  temperately  or  more  gently  expressed. 
They  rested  on  his  own  calm  view  of  principles  regarding  which  his 
mind  was  ever  open  and  his  will  ever  firm.  We  shall  go  forward 
more  wisely  in  days  to  come  in  the  inheritance  of  his  calm,  temper- 
ate, kindly  wisdom. 

We  learned  constantly  in  that  school  of  loving  fellowship  with 
him  a  great  and  reverent  sense  of  responsibility  and  just  reverence 
for  every  duty,  large  or  small.  Those  who  were  associated  with 
Dr.  Cobb  in  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Clifton  Springs  Sani- 
tarium, which  was  one  of  his  dearest  interests,  will  never  forget  the 
lessons  they  learned  constantly  from  him  in  that  comradeship.  He 
was  a  faithful  man,  not  only  in  his  thoughts  about  God  but  in  his 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE  61 

faithful  life  in  God  and  in  the  world  as  a  servant  of  God.  Fidelity 
underbased  all  his  doings.  To  many  there  will  come  back,  as  their 
minds  recall  what  he  was  and  what  he  did,  gentle  recollections  of  his 
unselfishness  and  humility.  He  was  not  one,  as  we  know,  who 
obtruded  himself,  nor  was  he  one  to  shrink  from  any  responsibihty, 
but  he  was  one  who  sought  no  responsibility  that  was  not  properly 
his  own.  He  walked  in  lowliness  of  mind  and,  therefore,  men 
sought  to  place  him  in  positions  of  leadership. 

No  one  has  referred  thus  far  to  the  playfulness  of  his  humor,  to 
that  delight  in  little  things  that  made  him  one  of  the  most  charming 
of  companions  always.  When  the  work  of  the  committee  meeting 
was  over,  when  the  discussions  of  the  Board  of  Directors  were  done, 
there  was  no  one  with  whom  it  was  a  greater  delight  to  sit  down  for 
the  quiet  flow  of  human  intercourse  than  Dr.  Cobb.  We  know 
well  how  destitute  the  gentle  current  of  his  life  was  of  everything 
malicious.  He  was  one  who  fulfilled  the  purpose  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  so  to  order  his  life  that  he  would  never  do  anything  out  of 
ill  will  or  revenge.  There  was  no  low  mindedness,  no  self  will  in 
any  thought  of  Dr.  Cobb's  in  relation  to  the  work  or  to  the  prob- 
lems or  to  men.  All  we  can  recall  about  him  here  today  is 
attended  by  no  bitterness.  No  one  memory  can  come  back  to  any 
one  of  us  that  is  not  fragrant  and  sweet  with  the  gentleness  and 
beauty  and  kindness  and  Christliness  of  his  pure  and  loving 
spirit. 

We  learned  from  him  one  last  great  lesson  through  all  those 
years  during  which  the  missionary  enterprise  had  to  contend  with 
much,  with  antagonism  and  opposition  and  unbelief  in  the  Church, 
with  criticism  in  the  public  press,  and  with  the  natural  selfishness 
of  the  human  heart.  Those  were  days  when  men  had  to  believe, 
and  we  learned  from  him  the  lesson  not  to  be  alarmed  or  concerned 
because  there  are  clouds  in  the  sky,  because  there  seem  to  be  insu- 
perable obstacles  before  us.  He  beheved  mightily  in  God  and  God 
justified  his  belief.  Encouraged  by  the  memory  of  such  great  and 
unassailable  faith,  we  look  up  on  skies  that  are  not  cloudless,  for- 
ward to  roads  that  are  not  free  from  their  hindrances  and  impedi- 


62  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

ments,  believing  still  that  He  who  vindicated  our  fathers'  trust  in 
Him  will  vindicate  also  our  own. 

In  those  blessed  memories  we  rejoice  today,  and  our  joy  is  not 
tinged  with  any  feehng  of  regret  that  he  is  not  with  us.  We  would 
fain  have  him  still  here,  but  it  is  a  far-better  country  whither  he  is 
gone ;  it  is  a  far-richer  service  that  is  opened  to  him  there  than  was 
possible  here.  Beyond  the  sweat  and  dust  and  tears  of  life,  beyond 
the  hindrances  and  limitations  that  beset  even  the  best  and  Christli- 
est  souls  here,  he  is  working  now,  we  know,  the  great  work  of  the 
good  before  God  Himself,  looking  upon  His  face.  Last  summer  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  missionaries  of  our  united  churches  in 
Japan,  Dr.  Wyckoff  read  a  paper  on  Guido  Verbeck,  and  he  closed 
with  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  Dr.  Cobb,  which  Dr.  Cobb  had 
written  to  him  shortly  after  the  tidings  of  Verbeck's  death  had 
come.  "The  more  I  think  of  it,"  he  wrote,  "the  greater  the  loss 
appears,  yet  we  could  not  expect  to  keep  him  always,  and  such  a 
departure  is  ever  so  much  better  than  protracted  feebleness  or  suf- 
fering; it  is  the  nearest  to  translation  that  this  poor  world  knows." 
And  far  from  desiring  that  all  this  should  Have  been  withheld  from 
him  a  little  more  we  rejoice  today  that  he  is  where  he  would  be, 
and  now  delivered  from  all  that  hindered  and  free  with  an  infinite 
liberty,  and  looking  upon  the  face  of  One  whom  all  those  years 
having  not  seen  he  loved,  he  still  has  his  part,  a  larger  and  a  richer 
and  a  more  powerful  part,  we  know,  in  everything  that  affects  the 
desires  of  his  Lord  and  ours.  May  his  memory  enable  us  to  walk 
in  his  own  spirit  of  loyalty  and  of  love. 


PRAYER:   DR.  VANCE 

O  God,  we  thank  Thee  for  the  fellowship  of  this  hour,  for  its 
holy  influence,  for  the  visions  and  dreams  which  come  to  us  as  we 
tarry  here  for  a  little  while  in  this  sanctuary  of  remembrance.  We 
thank  Thee  for  the  fellowship  it  gives  with  Thee  and  with  the 
sainted  dead.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  fellowship  of  this  hour, 
O  Lord,  with  Thy  work  and  with  Thy  workers.  We  bless  Thee 
for  a  cause  so  great  that  great  and  good  and  glorious  as  is  Thy  dear 
Son,  He  was  not  too  great  and  good  and  glorious  to  serve  this  cause 
and  to  die  for  it.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  these  who  have  followed 
in  His  train,  for  all  the  great  souls  of  time  who  have  caught  the 
spirit  of  the  Christ,  who  have  had  His  love  continually  in  their 
hearts,  who  have  gloried  in  His  grace,  and  who  have  lived  and 
laid  down  their  lives  for  His  Kingdom.  We  thank  Thee  for  great 
and  good  men  who  are  not  too  great  and  good  to  give  their  best  to 
Christ's  cause  and  who,  giving  their  best,  felt  that  they  did  not  give 
too  much.  We  thank  Thee  wdth  all  our  hearts  for  this  faithful 
servant  of  Thine,  whom  we  hold  and  shall  always  hold  in  sweet  and 
loving  remembrance.  We  thank  Thee,  O  God,  that  he  lived  for  a 
cause,  that  he  has  given  his  life  in  this  service ;  we  bless  Thee  that 
Thou  didst  give  him  such  a  long  life  of  splendid  usefulness  for  the 
greatest  and  best  of  all  the  causes  that  human  life  may  serve. 
And  now  in  the  afterglow  of  his  life,  as  we  gather  here,  we  would 
make  this  service  a  service  of  dedication,  we  would  seek  for  a  closer 
walk  with  Thee,  we  would  pray  that  there  may  come  upon  every 
one  of  us  a  double  portion  of  his  spirit  and  of  the  spirit  of  all  those 
who  have  served  the  Christ  and  the  Christ  cause  in  the  world. 
Speak  a  word  at  this  time.  We  worship  Thee  as  the  God  who  is  the 
same  yesterday,  today  and  forever,  and  we  find  in  Thee  a  perma- 
nence from  our  fleeting  and  our  transitory  lives.  We  thank  Thee 
that  no  life  given  to  Thee  can  ever  be  lost  and  nothing  done  for 
Thee  can  ever  be  lost.  We  commend  Thy  peace  to  those  Thy 
children  who  have  lost  from  their  home  the  comradeship  and  fellow- 


64  DR.    COBB:    IN  MEMORIAM 

ship,  the  homeloving,  the  gracious,  strong,  loving  presence  of  this 
man,  Thy  servant.  And  comfort  Thy  Church,  we  pray  Thee. 
Speak  a  word  of  peace  to  all  our  hearts,  and  give  us,  likewise,  at 
this  time  a  call  to  duty.  Baptize  us  for  the  dead  and  baptize  us  for 
the  living,  too.  O  God,  we  pray  that  Thou  wilt  kindle  our  hearts 
anew  with  devotion  to  Christ  and  His  cause.  Teach  us  why  Thou 
hast  placed  us  in  the  world,  give  us  a  larger  vision  at  this  time,  some- 
thing afresh  to  do  in  this  great  work  of  the  conquest  of  the  world  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  as  the  workers  fall  we  pray  that 
Thou  wilt  fill  the  vacant  places  in  the  ranks  and  call  the  young  men 
and  women  of  our  land  to  the  service  of  Christ,  call  them  for  the 
great  and  good  and  useful  and  unselfish  devotion  to  Him  and  His 
Kingdom.  Thus  be  with  us  and  sustain  us  as  one  by  one  we  finish 
our  work  and  cross  the  silent  flood  unto  Him  who  is  able  to  keep  us 
from  falling  and  to  present  us  faultless  before  the  presence  of  His 
glory  with  exceeding  joy.  And  to  the  one  wise  God  our  Father  be 
honor  and  glory  and  dominion  and  power,  both  now  and  forever. 
Amen. 


MEMORIAL  MINUTES 

THE  FOREIGN  BOARD  AND  ITS  MISSIONS 


MEMORIAL  MINUTES 

THE   FOREIGN   BOARD  AND  ITS  MISSIONS 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  R.C.A. 

THE  Reverend  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  passed  away 
at  his  home  in  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  on  Sunday  afternoon, 
April  17,  1910. 

The  Board  desires  to  place  on  record  its  profound  sense  of  loss 
in  his  going  hence — a  loss  common  to  the  Board  and  to  the 
Arabian  Mission,  as  well  as  to  the  entire  Reformed  Church. 

Dr.  Cobb  was  elected  a  member  of  this  Board  in  1874.  He  had 
previously  given  two  years  of  missionary  service  in  Persia.  His 
membership  on  the  Board  revealed  him  to  be  a  man  of  such  value 
that  upon  the  retirement  of  the  Rev.  John  Mason  Ferris,  D.D.,  as 
Corresponding  Secretary  in  1882,  Dr.  Cobb  was  immediately 
elected  his  successor.  He  has  given  the  Board  twenty-seven  years 
of  distinguished  and  growingly  valuable  service.  During  his 
administration  the  work  in  all  the  missions  has  greatly  advanced, 
the  number  of  missionaries  has  trebled,  the  receipts  have  increased 
almost  fourfold.  It  was  during  his  incumbency  that  the  Arabian 
Mission  was  organized  in  1889  and  has  grown  to  be  one  of  our 
strongest  missions.  He  twice  visited  our  missions  in  Asia,  in  1892 
and  1904,  receiving  the  warmest  welcome  from  the  missionaries, 
greatly  endearing  himself  to  the  Oriental  Christian  constituency, 
and  by  his  valuable  counsel  greatly  strengthening  the  efficiency  of 
the  work  in  every  country  which  he  visited. 

Dr.  Cobb  possessed  rare  gifts  for  the  work  to  which  he  gave  the 
richest  and  latest  years  of  his  life.  He  was  a  man  of  large  vision,  of 
keen  discernment,  of  poise  and  strong  business  sense,  of  great 
Christian  convictions,  of  sustained  and  kindling  enthusiasm.     He 


68  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

had  a  most  ihorough  knowledge  of  every  aspect  of  the  great  work 
of  world  evangehzation.  He  was  recognized  within  and  without 
the  Church  as  a  great  missionary  statesman.  He  gave  his  whole 
self  to  the  work  in  tireless  industry,  in  the  utmost  promptitude,  in 
the  most  patient  attention  to  every  detail,  in  his  most  faithful  and 
highly  appreciated  correspondence  with  the  missions  and  with 
individual  missionaries,  in  his  endeavor  by  voice  and  pen  to  deepen 
interest  in  the  churches  at  home  in  the  work  abroad,  in  his  corre- 
spondence with  prospective  candidates,  in  his  willing  and  most 
helpful  identification  with  every  movement  which  contemplated  the 
enlightenment  and  enlistment  of  the  constituency  at  home  or  the 
expansion  of  the  work  abroad. 

We  thank  God  that  he  gave  the  Board  and  the  Church  and  this 
great  cause  so  many  years  of  his  most  fruitful  life.  We  cannot  but 
record  the  privilege  and  the  joy  of  fellowship  with  one  so  strong,  so 
gentle,  so  lovable,  so  true,  so  believing,  so  Christhke.  We  shall 
long  miss  his  wisdom,  his  counsel,  his  inspiration,  his  presence 
among  us.  We  shall  long  cherish  his  memory  and  pray  for  grace 
to  press  on  in  the  way  of  world  winning  for  Jesus  Christ,  in  which 
he  so  long  led  us  forward. 

The  Amoy  Mission 

When  the  cable  flashed  to  us  the  news  that  God  had  called 
home  the  Reverend  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  our  hearts  were  bowed 
under  a  weight  of  sorrow  and  a  sense  of  loss  which  words  cannot 
express.  During  the  long  years  which  our  Lord  gave  to  Dr.  Cobb 
to  work  for  him  in  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  our  Church  we 
have  come  to  know  how  justly  deserved  was  the  encomium  pro- 
nounced at  the  Ecumenical  Conference  in  New  York  when  he  was 
called  "that  prince  of  missionary  secretaries  to  whose  efficient 
efforts  is  so  largely  due  the  success  of  this  meeting."  In  our  work 
in  China  and  in  our  place  in  the  home  church  on  every  side  we  see 
the  results  of  his  ability,  efficiency,  consecration.  He  has  gone, 
and  God  will  call  out  the  one  whom  He  has  prepared  to  assume 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  69 

his  place  of  leadership,  but  his  works,  done  in  self-effacing  love, 
will  follow  him. 

In  Dr.  Cobb's  death  not  only  have  we  lost  the  Secretary  whose 
model  letters  and  remarkable  administrative  ability  made  it  a 
privilege  to  work  with  him,  but  we  have  lost  the  personal  friend 
whose  friendship  and  sympathy  has  been  an  influence  in  the  life 
of  each  missionary  who  has  served  under  him.  In  adopting  this 
minute  to  record  our  grief  at  his  death,  our  appreciation  of  his 
services  and  friendship,  we  recognize  that  this  is  not  only  our 
bereavement  but  that  we  are  mourning  with  the  Board,  our  sister 
missions,  our  whole  Church,  in  the  loss  that  we  all  feel  now  and 
will  feel  more  and  more  deeply  as  time  brings  around  these  occa- 
sions which  were  wont  to  call  forth  his  sympathy  and  help. 

To  his  widow,  w^ho  for  fifty  years  shared  the  burden  of  his 
activities,  his  joy  in  the  work  and  the  love  of  his  friends,  and  to  his 
children,  who  will  with  us  gratefully  cherish  the  blessed  memory  of 
this  good  man,  we  extend  the  deepest  sympathy  of  our  sorrowing 
hearts  and  the  assurance  of  our  prayers  that  "our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  and  God,  our  Father,  w^ho  loved  us  and  gave  us 
eternal  comfort  and  good  hope  through  grace,"  may  comfort  their 
hearts  and  give  them  peace  at  all  times  in  all  ways.  May  our  Lord 
hasten  the  fulfilment  of  that. prayer  which  Dr.  Cobb  lived  and 
helped  us  to  pray,  "Thy  Kingdom  come,"  so  that  soon  we  shall 
all  meet  him  and  the  multitude  who  received  their  knowledge  of 
salvation  through  him  in  that  host  who  are  "before  the  throne  of 
God  and  serve  Him  day  and  night  in  His  temple,  whose  Shepherd  is 
the  Lamb  who  shall  guide  them  unto  fountains  of  waters  of  life." 

Frank  Eckerson, 

Secretary. 

The  Arcot  Mission 

The  members  of  the  Arcot  Mission,  who  had  recently  to  record 
the  death  of  the  honored  President  of  the  Home  Board,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Mancius  H.  Hutton,  are  now  called  to  mourn  the  loss  of  the 


70  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

beloved  Corresponding  Secretary  of  our  Board,  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie 
Cobb,  D.D.,  who  passed  away  on  the  17th  of  April,  1910,  after  fifty 
years  of  distinguished  service  to  the  Church  and  its  missions.  In 
acknowledging  the  sense  of  our  bereavement  at  Dr.  Cobb's  death 
we  find  it  difficult  to  obtain  words  that  will  suitably  express  our  high 
estimate  of  his  character  and  work. 

Rarely  has  it  been  given  a  man  to  combine  in  his  person  such  a 
variety  of  spiritual  and  mental  gifts.  To  us  as  missionaries  his 
career  was  especially  an  inspiration.  Dr.  Cobb  spent  the  first 
years  of  his  ministry  in  the  foreign  field,  where  his  love  for  missions 
developed  into  a  passion  which  never  left  him.  Obliged  to  return 
to  America  on  account  of  ill  health,  he  served  for  some  time  as 
pastor  in  the  home  church,  when  he  was  elected  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  bringing  to  the  office  a 
wealth  of  resources  peculiarly  adapted  to  so  responsible  a  position. 
His  eminent  executive  gifts,  his  catholicity  of  spirit,  largeness  of 
vision  and  winning  personality  won  for  him  a  high  place  among 
missionary  statesmen,  as  evidenced  by  the  leading  part  assigned 
him  in  the  annual  Conference  of  Foreign  Mission  Boards,  and  by 
his  appointment  as  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Ecumenical  Conference  of  Foreign  Missions  held  in  New  York 
in  1900. 

In  his  special  work  of  correspondence  with  the  missions  Dr. 
Cobb  could  not  be  surpassed.  While  loyal  to  the  Board  as  its 
executive  officer,  yet,  in  communicating  actions  unwelcome  to  the 
missionaries,  he  always  did  it  in  so  kindly  a  way  as  to  considerably 
mitigate  any  disappointment,  while  his  earnest  efforts  and  moving 
appeals  against  "cuts"  in  time  of  financial  stringency  at  home  were 
no  little  solace  to  us. 

Although  Dr.  Cobb's  talents  as  an  administrator  gained  for  him 
among  us  the  title  of  "the  model  Secretary,"  yet  it  was  his  preemi- 
nent personal  graces  that  especially  endeared  him  to  all  the  workers 
on  the  field.  In  him  every  missionary  reahzed  that  he  had  a  per- 
sonal friend.  None  of  us  will  forget  the  delightful  and  sympathetic 
letters  that  we  have  received  from  him,  written  with  his  own  familiar 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  71 

hand  and  penned  in  the  midst  of  large  and  heavy  official  corre- 
spondence. 

During  Dr.  Cobb's  three  decades  of  office  as  Corresponding 
Secretary  the  missionary  force  of  the  Arcot  Mission  was  doubled 
and  the  work  increased  several  fold.  His  two  visits  to  the  Mission 
will  long  linger  in  the  memory  of  ourselves  and  the  Indian 
Christians. 

To  Mrs.  Cobb  in  her  loneliness  we  tender  our  warmest  sym- 
pathy, as  well  as  to  the  children  bereft  of  an  affectionate  father  and 
companion.  L.  B.  Chamberlain, 

Secretary. 

The  North  Japan  Mission 

Resolved,  That  the  North  Japan  Mission  desires  to  record  its 
deep  appreciation  of  the  more  than  twenty-five  years  of  faithful 
service  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  N.  Cobb.  During  his  many  years  of 
personal  and  official  relations  with  the  members  of  the  North  Japan 
Mission,  by  his  exalted  piety  and  faith  in  God  and  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  his  missionary  zeal  and  faith  in  the  triumphs  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  success  of  the  cause  of  missions,  by  his  wide  catho- 
licity of  spirit,  his  sympathy  with  the  aspirations  of  the  churches  of 
the  Orient  and  his  courteous  and  sympathetic  treatment  of  the 
members  of  the  mission,  in  the  many  trying  experiences  and  prob- 
lems that  have  arisen.  Dr.  Cobb's  services  have  been  such  that  we 
cannot  but  feel  that  the  Church  he  represented,  the  cause  he  so 
warmly  and  nobly  advocated  and  we,  ourselves,  whom  he  so 
consistently  sustained  in  the  confidence  and  warmth  of  Chris- 
tian fellowship  have  suffered  what  might  seem  an  irreparable 
loss. 

It  has  always  been  a  comfort  to  know  that  Dr.  Cobb  had  him- 
self been  a  missionary  on  the  foreign  field,  which,  with  his  two 
memorable  visits  to  the  mission  fields  of  our  own  Reformed  Church, 
made  him  appear  more  like  one  of  our  own  members  and  enabled 
him,  by  personal  experiences-,  to  enter  into  sympathy  with  us,  to 


72        .  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

share  our  burdens  and  confidences  and  to  be  the  wise  and  consider- 
ate counsellor  that  he  was  to  all  his  brethren. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  most  grateful  hearts  we  record  our  thanks- 
givings to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  for  the  gift  of  such  a  wise 
and  beloved  brother  and  fellow  helper  unto  the  establishment  of 
the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  upon  the  earth. 

Nor  would  we  fail  to  express  our  thanks  for  the  wide  and  lively 
interest  he  took  in  national  and  political  affairs  in  America  and  all 
lands,  which  enabled  him  to  keep  us  in  touch  with  all  that  makes 
for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  among  men. 

On  behalf  of  the  North  Japan  Mission. 

James  H.  Ballagh, 
Eugene  S.  Booth. 

The  South  Japan  Mission 

The  South  Japan  Mission  has  heard  with  profound  sorrow  of 
the  death  of  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  for  so  many  years  the 
Secretary  of  our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  Dr.  Cobb's  term  of 
service  as  Secretary  antedates  that  of  even  the  oldest  living  member 
of  our  Mission.  For  us  Dr.  Cobb  has  been  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions.  We  have  known  the  latter  and  the  Church's  organized 
missionary  spirit  chiefly  through  his  communications,  and  as  a 
result  we  have,  as  a  Mission,  for  years  looked  up  to  him  with  some- 
thing of  filial  regard.  His  letters  to  the  Mission  were  models  of 
what  such  communications  should  be.  Their  style  was  singularly 
lucid  and  in  surprisingly  few  words  fully  set  forth  the  Board's 
views,  even  on  most  intricate  problems.  Yet  his  letters  were  never 
the  dry  record  of  actions  taken.  They  were  ever  colored  with  the 
writer's  warm  personality,  real  interest  in  the  individual  missionary 
and  intense  zeal  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  world. 
It  could  hardly  have  been  expected  that  a  personal  element  should 
be  injected  into  such  communications,  and  yet  chiefly  through  them, 
to  a  surprising  degree,  our  missionaries  came  to  feel  that  Dr.  Cobb 
had  a  personal  knowledge  and  a  personal  interest  in  the  circum- 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  73 

stances  of  each  one.  Where  it  was  his  duty  to  dissent  or  correct  it 
was  done  with  such  evident  regret  and  in  such  an  unselfish  spirit 
that  to  take  offense  was  well-nigh  impossible.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
recall  to  what  a  large  extent  he  has  influenced  the  views  and  life 
purposes  of  each  one  of  us.  We,  as  well  as  the  Church,  have  lost 
greatly  by  his  passing  away,  but  his  years  of  service  have  left  with 
us  all  a  rich  heritage  which  will  be  with  us  always. 

The  Mission  hereby  directs  its  secretary  to  enter  the  above  ex- 
pression of  our  sense  of  loss  upon  the  minutes  of  the  Mission,  and 
to  forward  a  copy  to  the  Board.  Willis  G.  Hoekje, 

Secretary. 

The  Arabian  Mission 

The  missionaries  of  the  Arabian  Mission  herewith  wish  to 
express  their  sense  of  the  loss  which  our  work  has  suffered  in  the 
recent  taking  away  of  our  revered  Secretary,  Dr.  Cobb. 

From  the  inception  of  the  Mission  and  throughout  its  career 
Dr.  Cobb  was  a  sincere  friend  of  the  eff'ort,  as  our  older  missionaries 
can  testify.  No  word  of  his  discouraging  the  new  independent 
Mission  can  be  remembered,  and  when  finally  it  was  taken  under 
the  care  of  our  Church  he  was  always  clear  and  definite  in  express- 
ing his  opinion  that  the  Arabian  Mission  had  not  been  and  would 
not  be  a  loss  to  the  older  work  in  other  fields.  Nor  did  he  ever 
hesitate  to  express  his  belief  that  our  Reformed  Church  would  and 
should  take  its  share  in  the  redemption  of  Arabia.  His  steadfast 
faith,  his  wise  counsels  and  his  personal  interest  will  always  be  held 
a  potent  factor  in  the  development  of  our  Mission. 

But  the  thought  that  is  uppermost  in  the  heart  of  each  worker  is 
that  we  have  lost  not  only  a  leader  and  a  sympathizer,  but  a  friend. 
His  faithful  and  helpful  words  of  farewell  on  leaving  the  homeland 
and  his  cheery  welcome  on  landing  in  New  York  never  failed  us. 
Cordially  accepting  of  personal  confidences  and  sharing,  so  far  as  he 
could,  in  the  burden  of  personal  responsibility,  his  individual  letters 
of  appreciation,  sympathy  and  hope  will  be  always  treasured  by 


74  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

those  who  received  them.    As  a  man,  a  brother  and  a  father  his 
memory  is  a  stimulus  to  us,  his  life  an  example. 

With  all  the  missionaries  of  our  Church  we  mourn  his  loss  to  the 
work  but  rejoice  that  he  has  entered  into  his  rest  and  reward — 
looking  forward  to  that  triumphant  day  when,  the  victory  won,  we 
shall  stand  by  his  side  and  hail  our  Lord  as  Conqueror  and  King. 

James  Cantine. 


MEMORIAL   MINUTES 

THE  BOARDS  OF  THE  REFORMED  CHURCH 


MEMORIAL  MINUTES 

THE  BOARDS  OF  THE  REFORMED  CHURCH 


Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 

From  Mrs.  DeWitt  Knox,  Recording  Secretary: 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  held 
May  17,  I  was  asked  to  express  to  you  the  sympathy  of  the  mana- 
gers in  the  great  loss,  common  to  us  all,  of  dear  Dr.  Cobb,  and  to 
assure  you  of  our  loyal  cooperation  and  support  in  every  way 
possible. 

To  the  Woman's  Board  Dr.  Cobb  was  the  most  perfect  friend 
imaginable,  so  patient,  so  wise,  so  kindly  in  every  word  and  deed, 
and  not  without  the  saving  grace  of  humor.  He  had  "the  undi- 
vided will  to  seek  the  good,  to  compel  the  elements  and  to  wring  a 
human  music  from  an  indifferent  air,"  and  he  was  truly. 

One  who  never  turned  his  back,  but  marched  breast  forward, 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 

Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph. 

And  as  we  know  "no  power  can  die  that  ever  wrought  for 
truth,"  so  his  courage,  his  devotion  will  be  a  lasting  influence  to 
lead  us  forward. 


The  Board  of  Domestic  Missions 

From  the  Rev.  James  I.  Vance,  D.D.,  President: 

A  great  Christian  is  one  who  has  room  in  his  heart  for  all  the 
interests  of  Christ's  kingdom.  Dr.  Cobb  was  in  this  respect,  as 
well  as  in  others,  a  great  Christian.  He  was  enough  of  a  Christian 
statesman  not  to  see  that  dim  line  the  Church,  for  administration 


78  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

purposes,  runs  between  the  Church  at  home  and  the  Church 
abroad. 

The  records  will  be  searched  in  vain  for  any  word  or  act  or  hint 
from  him  that  might  be  construed  as  a  betrayal  of  any  feeling  of 
jealousy  toward  or  any  lack  of  interest  in  the  work  of  the  Board  of 
Domestic  Missions. 

Those  of  us  to  whom  the  Church  has  committed  the  oversight 
and  direction  of  our  missions  at  home  have  known  beyond  a  doubt 
that  we  could  count  on  the  intelligent  sympathy  and  warm  coopera- 
tion and  hearty  support  of  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Missions.  It  never  occurred  to  us  to  try  to  guard  our  peculiar 
interests  in  our  dealings  with  Dr.  Cobb,  for  we  knew  he  was  sound 
enough  in  judgment  and  great  enough  in  heart  to  guarantee  a  broad 
and  catholic  and  fair  treatment  of  all  matters  in  which  the  two 
Boards  touched. 

He  was  the  soul  of  considerate  and  thoughtful  courtesy  in  all 
his  deahngs  with  all  his  brethren,  and  it  was  a  dehght  and  an  in- 
spiration to  be  associated  with  him  on  committees  and  in  projects 
for  the  advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom. 

Truly  his  was  a  rare  spirit,  and  the  beauty  of  his  devoted  and 
unselfish  service,  the  charm  of  his  gracious  personahty,  the  sin- 
cerity and  noble  dignity  of  his  life  and  the  beauty  of  his  fine  soul 
will  long  be  treasured  by  the  Church.  The  foreign  missionary  work 
of  our  Church  is  greatly  bereft  by  his  death,  but  we  who  are  charged 
with  the  work  at  home  feel  that  our  loss  is  not  less  profound. 


Women's  Board  of  Domestic  Missions 

From  Mrs.  John  S.  Allen,  Corresponding  Secretary: 

The  Women's  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  requests  me  to  con- 
vey to  you  their  very  deep  sympathy  in  the  bereavement  that  has 
come  to  your  Board  in  the  loss  6f  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  N.  Cobb, 
your  beloved  Corresponding  Secretary. 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  79 

His  beautiful  spirit,  unerring  judgment  and  wise  counsel  will  be 
greatly  missed  in  the  fellowship  of  our  Church  home. 

Truly  we  are  all  bereaved  and  share  with  you  and  the  Church 
at  large  the  consciousness  of  a  great  loss. 


The  Board  of  Education 

From  the  Rev.  Theo.  W.  Wells,  D.D.,  President: 

The  Board  of  Education  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America 
desires  to  express  to  the  Church's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  its 
sincere  regret  and  hearty  sympathy  because  of  the  loss  the  Board 
has  sustained  through  the  recent  death  of  its  very  able  and  efficient 
Corresponding  Secretary,  the  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.  He  was 
eminently  endowed  with  the  peculiar  qualifications  his  position 
demanded  and  the  work  to  which  he  was  called  required.  His 
natural  abilities  of  no  mean  order,  faithfully  trained  and  entirely 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  Christ,  were  an  equipment  which 
directed  and  used  as  his  whole-hearted  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
foreign  missions  might  determine,  made  him  a  power  in  the  Church 
that  seldom  failed  to  awaken  zeal  and  enkindle  enthusiasm  for 
the  world's  evangelization.  His  long  term  of  service  makes  his 
death  a  loss  to  the  Church  at  large  and  causes  many  a  one  to  wonder 
why  one  so  fitted  for  the  duties  of  the  office  he  occupied  should  be 
taken  out  of  the  world  when  he  was  so  much  needed.  We  cannot 
understand  it.  God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way  His  wonders  to  per- 
form, but  for  the  comfort  of  the  hearts  of  his  bereaved  He  has  given 
us  the  cheering  word,  "What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou 
shalt  know  hereafter."  God  makes  no  mistakes.  This  is  our 
comfort.  All  is  well.  The  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth.  You 
sorrow  now  because  you  miss  the  sound  of  a  familiar  voice  and  an 
accustomed  greeting.  We  sympathize  with  you  in  your  sorrow,  but 
we  sorrow  not  without  hope.  The  workmen  fall  by  the  way  but  the 
work  goes  on.     Be  of  good  cheer,  brethren. 


80  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun 
Doth  his  successive  journeys  run, 
His  kingdom  stretch  from  shore  to  shore 
Till  moons  shall  wax  and  wane  no  more. 

Now  His  command  rings  out  clearly  and  distinctly :  "  Go  ye  into 
all  the  worid  and  preach  my  gospel  to  every  creature."  By  and 
by,  yet  a  little  while,  and  the  same  voice  will  whisper  in  our  ears : 
"Come,  ye  blessed  of  My  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 


MEMORIAL  MINUTES 

OTHER  BOARDS  AND  SOCIETIES 


MEMORIAL   MINUTES 

OTHER  BOARDS  AND  SOCIETIES 


The  Announcement  of  Dr.  Cobb's  Death 
to  the  Boards 

New  York,  April  21,  1910. 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
America  announces  with  profound  sorrow  and  with  a  deep  sense  of 
its  own  loss  and  that  of  the  Church  which  it  represents  the  death, 
on  Sunday,  April  17,  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  for 
more  than  twenty-seven  years  its  faithful  and  beloved  Correspond- 
ing Secretary.  The  Board  is  assured  that  its  own  sorrow  will  be 
shared  by  the  secretaries  and  officers  of  the  boards  of  other  churches 
who  have  been  so  long  and  intimately  associated  with  Dr.  Cobb. 

A  Memorial  Service  in  commemoration  of  the  life  and  work  of 
Dr.  Cobb  will  be  held  in  the  Collegiate  Reformed  Church,  West 
End  Avenue  and  77th  Street,  on  Monday,  April  25,  at  3  o'clock. 
Addresses  will  be  delivered  by  Dr.  Fagg,  Dr.  Capen  and  Dr.  Speer, 
of  the  Reformed,  the  American  and  the  Presbyterian  Boards.  Rep- 
resentatives of  other  boards  will  be  welcomed  at  the  service. 


Conference   of    Foreign    Missions   Boards   of 
the  United  States  and  Canada 

New  York,  February  12,  1911. 

From  Mr.  W.  Henry  Grant,  Secretary: 

The  Conference  of  Foreign  Missions  Boards  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada  desires  to  record  its  high  appreciation  of  the 


84  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

character  and  services  of  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.  His 
unfailing  courtesy  and  capacity  for  personal  friendship  bound  him 
with  ties  of  affection  to  all  who  have  had  the  privilege  of  fellowship 
with  him. 

He  attended  the  first  meeting  of  the  Conference  in  1893,  and,  in 
all  attended  fourteen  out  of  its  eighteen  sessions,  serving  on  a  num- 
ber of  committees,  ahd  taking  the  deepest  interest  in  all  its  pro- 
ceedings. His  paper  on  "Self-Support  in  the  Native  Church"  may 
be  said  to  have  given  a  new  impetus  to  that  movement  and  to  have 
induced  the  efforts  of  the  Conference  to  make  this  a  matter  of 
spiritual  helpfulness  to  the  native  churches. 

Dr.  Cobb  was  elected  as  the  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Ecumenical  Conference,  New  York,  1900,  and  he, 
with  the  Secretary,  acted  as  an  Emergency  Committee  which  set- 
tled all  questions  of  order  arising  during  the  Conference. 

Henry  Nitchie  Cobb  was  born  in  New  York  City,  November  15, 
1834,  and  died  at  his  home  in  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  on  Sunday  after- 
noon, April  17,  1910,  aged  seventy-five  years.  He  graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1855,  and  from  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in 
1857.  He  was  licensed  and  ordained  by  the  Third  Presbytery  of 
New  York  in  1860,  and  in  that  same  year  was  sent  out  by  the  Amer- 
ican Board  of  Foreign  Missions  as  missionary  to  the  Nestorians  in 
Persia  and  Koordistan.  After  two  years  of  service  his  health  gave 
way  and  he  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  chosen  life  work  and  to 
return  to  America.  He  became  pastor  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
Millbrook,  N.  Y.,  where  for  fifteen  years  he  rendered  faithful  and 
acceptable  service.  During  that  period,  in  the  year  1877,  General 
Synod  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  elected  him  a  member 
of  its  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  of  which  board  he  became  the 
Corresponding  Secretary  in  1882.  The  wisdom  of  the  board's 
selection  was  increasingly  manifest  during  the  twenty-seven  years 
of  his  service,  closing  with  his  death. 

Dr.  Cobb's  personal  qualities  were  of  the  highest  and  most 
winning  type.    He  was  extremely  modest,  a  man  of  singular  pur- 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  85 

ity  of  character,  with  an  innate  and  beautiful  courtesy  of  manner, 
a  whole-souled  kindness  of  heart,  calm  and  self  controlled,  patient 
and  yet  steadily  persistent  amid  the  weighty  responsibilities  that 
marked  all  his  years  of  varied  service,  as  foreign  missionary,  as 
pastor  and  as  leader  in  the  administration  of  the  missionary  work 
of  the  denomination. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  send  copies  of  these  resolutions 
to  Doctor  Cobb's  family  and  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of 
the  Reformed  Church  in  America. 

If  I  were  called  on  for  personal  testimony,  it  would  be  that 
Doctor  Cobb  has  been,  during  the  past  seventeen  years,  in  which 
the  Boards  have  met  annually,  one  of  three  or  four  of  my  most  con- 
stant and  balanced  counsellors.  One  of  the  greatest  evidences  of 
the  value  of  his  counsel  is  in  the  firm  establishment  of  the  Annual 
Conference  itself  as  shown  by  the  active  cooperation  of  about  fifty 
boards  in  its  meetings  and  through  its  committees. 


Committee  of  Reference  and  Counsel,  Con:- 

ference  of  Foreign  Missions  Boards  in  the 

United  States  of  America  and  Canada 

New  York,  April  27,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Arthur  J.  Brown,  D.D.,  Chairman. 

With  a  profound  sense  of  personal  loss,  the  members  of  the 
Committee  on  Reference  and  Counsel  have  learned  of  the  death  of 
our  colleague  and  brother,  Dr.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  on  Sunday, 
April  17, 1910.  Dr.  Cobb  was  the  senior  in  service  among  the  sec- 
retaries of  the  Mission  Boards  of  the  United  States.  With  a  ma- 
turity and  sanity  of  judgment  incalculable  in  value  in  the  councils 
of  this  committee  and  to  the  Mission  Boards  of  North  America ;  of 
unfailing  courtesy  and  a  capacity  for  personal  friendship  that  bound 
him  with  ties  of  affection  to  all  who  were  permitted  to  cooperate 


86  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

with  him  in  an  ofl&cial  or  private  capacity,  Dr.  Cobb  occupied  a 
unique  place  in  our  confidence  and  love. 

We  desire  hereby  to  express  to  Mrs.  Cobb,  all  the  members  of 
the  bereaved  family  and  to  the  Mission  Board  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America  our  sympathy  with  them  in  their  sorrow. 
^  A  multitude  scattered  throughout  the  world,  while  mourning 
their  own  loss  and  the  loss  to  the  cause  of  missions,  nevertheless  re- 
joice in  the  boundless  service  Dr.  Cobb  has  rendered  the  cause  of 
the  Kingdom,  and  the  assurance  that  the  work  he  did  will  go  on  in 
increasing  force  and  power. 

It  is  recommended  that  this  action  be  spread  upon  the  minutes 
of  the  Committee  of  Reference  and  Counsel,  and  sent  to  Mrs.  Cobb 
and  to  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
America. 


American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 

Missions 

Boston,  Mass.,  April  21,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  L.  Barton,  Senior  Secretary: 

Personally,  and  on  behalf  of  the  American  Board,  I  wish  to  ex- 
press our  sense  of  loss  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Cobb.  We  have  always 
felt  that  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
America  and  the  American  Board  were  as  close  together  in  their 
ideals  and  practical  operation  as  any  two  mission  boards  in  the 
world.  I  have  personally  felt  that  in  Dr.  Cobb  I  had  an  adviser 
and  a  friend  upon  whom  reliance  could  always  be  placed  and  who 
never  failed  to  command  confidence  by  the  wisdom  of  his  advice 
and  suggestion.  But  beyond  all  this  it  has  been  impossible  to  be 
associated  with  Dr.  Cobb  as  I  have  been  associated  in  the  last 
twelve  or  fifteen  years,  and  not  to  have  a  bond  of  affection  formed 
which  has  been  continually  strengthened  as  the  years  have  gone  on. 
And  yet  when  we  think  of  the  fullness  of  the  life  that  he  lived  and 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  87 

the  great  service  which  he  has  been  permitted  to  render  to  the  cause 
of  missions  both  at  home  and  abroad,  we  cannot  but  thank  God  for 
him,  for  the  ripeness  and  fulhiess  of  the  service,  and  that  he  was  not 
called  upon  to  pass  through  a  long  period  of  suffering,  but  experi- 
enced a  brief  transition  from  his  service  here  on  earth  to  eternal  fel- 
lowship with  the  Lord,  whom  he  served  so  well.  Our  syinpathies 
are  with  you  and  with  your  association.  ♦ 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America 

New  York,  April  30,  1910. 

I.  From  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Alexander,  President: 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America  at  a  recent  meeting  learned  with  sor- 
row of  the  bereavement  which  your  Board  has  sustained  in  the 
lamented  death  of  the  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  your  Secretary, 
and  instructed  me  to  express  to  you  their  deep  sympathy. 

By  his  qualities  and  his  work  Dr.  Cobb  had  made  himself  the 
property  of  all  the  churches,  and  especially  endeared  himself  to 
those  whose  privilege  it  was  to  be  associated  with  him  in  prosecut- 
ing the  great  enterprise  of  foreign  missions. 

Will  you  kindly  inform  his  family  that  we  of  the  Presbyterian 
Board  share  your  loss  and  theirs  ? 

New  York,  April  19,  1910. 

II.  From  Dr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Senior  Secretary: 

It  was  with  the  shock  and  grief  which  one  would  feel  upon  sud- 
den news  of  his  own  father's  death  that  I  read  in  yesterday's  paper 
of  Dr.  Cobb's  going.     I  have  loved  him  with  a  filial  love  for  many 


88  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

years  and  shall  miss  more  than  words  can  say  the  perfect  confidence 
and  intimacy  of  this  blessed  friendship.  I  offer  my  deepest  sym- 
pathy to  your  Board  in  its  great  sorrow. 


Executive  Committee  of  Foreign  Missions  of 

the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 

States  (South) 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  May  9,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  S.  H.  Chester,  Senior  Secretary: 

The  Executive  Committee  of  Foreign  Missions  has  learned  with 
profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of  your  venerable  and  beloved  Sec- 
treary,  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  and  hereby  extends  to  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  its  cordial 
sympathy  in  this  great  loss  and  breravement.  The  cooperative 
work  carried  on  by  our  mission  and  yours  in  Japan  has  been  the 
occasion  of  a  great  deal  of  correspondence  and  many  personal  con- 
ferences with  Dr.  Cobb,  in  all  of  which  he  ever  showed  himself  to 
be  a  man  of  clear  judgment,  broad  sympathies  and  of  a  warm  and 
loving  heart. 

Foreign  Missions  Committee,  Presbyterian 

Church  in  Canada 

Toronto,  April  22,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  P.  MacKay,  Secretary: 

I  have  just  received  your  note  announcing  the  death  of  the  Rev. 
Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.  It  was  not  my  privilege  to  enjoy  the  inti- 
mate acquaintance  of  Dr.  Cobb,  and  yet  I  feel  as  if  I  had  lost  a  dear 
and  personal  friend.  In  the  annual  conferences  of  Board  secre- 
taries he  was  always  conspicuous,  and  the  more  so  because  of  his 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  89 

quiet  modesty  and  gentle  spirit,  as  well  as  by  the  intellectual  grasp 
and  clear  conviction  manifest  in  every  utterance  and  in  all  his  bear- 
ing. He  was  a  loving  apostle  and  to  an  unusual  degree  represented 
the  spirit  of  his  Master.  I  had  a  great  affection  for  him,  and  his 
presence  will  be  sadly  missed  in  the  days  to  come. 

What  the  loss  will  be  to  the  missionaries  to  whom  he  so  long 
and  faithfully  ministered  none  other  appreciate.  He  was  a  father 
as  well  as  a  friend.     Thank  God  for  the  gift  of  such  a  man. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  to  him  the  change  is  blessed.  He  has 
seen  the  King  in  His  beauty  and  has  entered  upon  the  fullness  of 
His  joy.  May  the  memory  abide  as  an  inspiration  in  your  Church, 
and  especially  in  all  your  mission  fields. 

Were  it  in  my  power  it  would  be  a  melancholy  pleasure  to  be 
present  at  the  memorial  service.  But  that  is  not  possible.  Please 
accept  my  sincere  sympathy  in  this,  your  sorrow,  and  I  know  my 
Board  will  wish  to  be  included  in  this  expression  of  sympathy  and 
the  fellowship  of  suffering. 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  of  North  America 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  April  25,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  Dr.  C.  R.  Watson,  Secretary: 

The  announcement  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Cobb  came,  bringing 
profound  sorrow  and  a  great  sense  of  loss  to  us  all.  Personally,  my 
acquaintance  with  Dr.  Cobb  had  led  to  a  feeling  of  deep  affection 
for  him.  His  uniform  kindliness,  his  deep  sympathy  and  his  marked 
courtesy  drew  me  to  him,  and  resulted  in  an  increasing  admira- 
tion for  him  and  his  character.  Of  course,  in  Board  circles  we  feel 
his  loss  even  more  greatly. 

His  wise  counsel  and  his  broad  sympathy  and  his  strong  faith, 
made  him  one  of  the  most  valuable  advisers  in  our  conferences. 


90  DR.    COBB:   IN    MEMORIAM 

You  will  extend  to  your  Board  in  behalf  of  our  own  the  assur- 
ance of  our  sympathy  with  you  in  your  loss. 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  I  cannot  be  in  New  York  to  share 
in  the  memorial  service  which  is  to  be  held  today  at  the  Collegiate 
Reformed  Church.  Our  sympathy  is  extended  to  you  by  tele- 
graph. 


Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  Reformed  Church 
in  the  United  States 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  April  23,  1910. 
From  Dr.  J.  Albert  Beam,  Acting  Secretary: 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the 
United  States  has  received  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Rev. 
Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  your 
body,  with  deep  sorrow  and  a  keen  appreciation  of  your  loss  and 
ours.  The  influence  of  his  life  and  work,  however,  will  continue  to 
inspire  all  who  have  been  associated  with  him  in  the  advancement 
of  the  cause  to  which  his  hfe  was  devoted. 

It  is  a  cause  of  much  regret  that  the  President  of  this  Board 
and  the  Secretary  are  not  in  America  at  the  present  time  and  the 
Acting  Secretary  has  an  engagement  which  prevents  his  being 
present  at  the  memorial  service. 

Accept  the  assurance  of  the  heartfelt  sympathy  of  every  member 
of  this  Board. 

American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society 

Boston,  November  17,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  F.  P.  Haggard,  Home  Secretary: 

Dr.  Cobb  was  one  of  a  noble  group  of  older  missionary  leaders 
upom  whom  we  younger  men  look  almost  with  reverence.    It  was 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  91 

a  pleasure  to  anticipate  an  annual  meeting  of  the  Conference  of 
Foreign  Missions  Boards  because  of  the  hope  entertained  of  meet- 
ing Dr.  Cobb  and  his  fellow  workers.  To  me  he  was  a  singularly 
attractive  character.  I  always  liked  to  hear  him  speak.  His  voice 
and  manner  had  pecuhar  charm  and  wisdom  flowed  from  his  lips. 
It  was  not  permitted  me  to  be  intimate  with  him,  but  again  and 
again  I  derived  profit  from  his  counsels  and  the  inspiration  of  his 
presence.  The  secretaries  of  our  Board  felt  a  personal  loss  when 
he  left  us.  He  helped  us  more  than  the  average  man  to  forget  our 
differences,  to  recognize  our  points  of  agreement  and  to  magnify 
the  high  privilege  we  had  of  working  together  for  a  great  common 
cause.  We  shall  miss  him  in  our  councils,  as  I  dare  say  the  Board 
which  he  served  for  so  many  years  misses  him  in  its  work.  His 
memory  will  abide.  His  life  was  a  benediction  and  continues  to  be 
a  source  of  inspiration  to  those  who  would  broaden  their  horizon 
and  give  themselves  to  the  larger  service  of  the  Kingdom. 


Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention 

Richmond,  Va.,  April  22,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  J.  Willingham,  Corresponding  Secretary: 

Your  letter  is  received  in  which  you  conveyed  the  sad  news  of 
the  departure  from  earth  of  Dr.  H.  N.  Cobb,  your  noble  Secretary, 
who  for  so  many  years  has  stood  faithfully  at  the  helm.  It  was  not 
my  privilege  often  to  meet  this  consecrated,  noble  servant  of  our 
Lord,  but  from  time  to  time  I  had  that  pleasure  at  our  various  mis- 
sion gatherings.  I  learned  to  esteem  and  love  him.  He  was  one 
of  the  Lord's  noblemen  and  a  saint  in  Zion.  Not  only  on  my  own 
behalf,  but  on  behalf  of  our  Board,  I  extend  to  you  and  to  your 
Board  our  sympathy. 


92  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAJM 

General  Conference  of  Free  Baptists 

Hillsdale,  Mich.,  April  23,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  M.  Ford,  Secretary: 

It  is  with  deep  regret  that  I  learn  through  you  of  the  death  of 
Dr.  Cobb,  who  has  for  so  many  years  figured  so  conspicuously  in 
the  work  of  foreign  missions,  as  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  your 
Board.  In  his  death  we  sustain  a  profound  sorrow  and  incalcu- 
lable loss.    We  shall  miss  his  face  in  the  missionary  convocations. 

Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  National 
Baptist  Convention 

Louisville,  Ky.,  April  28,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  Dr.  L.  G.  Jordan,  Corresponding  Secretary: 

The  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  National  Baptist  Convention 
hereby  extends  its  sympathy  to  you  and  your  co-laborers  in  the  loss 
of  the  late  Dr.  Cobb.  We  pray  the  Lord  that  even  in  his  death 
he  may  make  stronger  appeals  for  the  spread  of  God's  Kingdom 
than  during  his  life. 

One  by  one,  we  who  labor  for  the  good  of  others,  are  going  to 
our  rest  and  are  leaving  to  those  who  survive  us  a  richer  legacy  in 
Christian  service  than  when  we  began. 

Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church 

New  York,  April  22,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  Dr.  Homer  C.  Stuntz,  Secretary: 

It  was  with  very  deep  regret  that  we  learned  of  the  death  of  Dr. 
Cobb.  We  will  have  a  representative  of  this  Board  present  at  the 
memorial  service.  I  deeply  regret  that  previous  engagements  will 
prevent  my  presence. 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  93 

Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  (South) 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  April  23,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  Dr.  W.  R.  Lambuth,  Secretary: 

The  announcement  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Henry  N.  Cobb  is  re- 
ceived with  a  profound  sense  of  loss  and  of  personal  bereavement. 
Dr.  Cobb  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  secretarial  body.  During 
the  past  eighteen  years  I  have  known  him  intimately  and  have  not 
only  respected  him  for  his  ability,  but  held  him  in  high  personal 
esteem  for  his  piety,  his  modesty  and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  which 
he  served  with  such  conspicuous  success. 

There  was  no  secretary  in  the  United  States  or  in  Canada  who 
had  a  clearer  insight  into  difficult  missionary  problems,  was  better 
poised,  nor  was  there  one  who  could  be  more  freely  relied  upon  for 
sound  judgment  at  all  times. 

The  secretaries  and  officers  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  do  indeed  share  your  sorrow 
and  deep  sense  of  loss.  May  his  mantle  fall  upon  the  one  who  shall 
succeed  him  in  office,  and  the  blessing  and  peace  of  God  fill  the 
heart  of  Mrs.  Cobb  and  those  members  of  the  family  who  survive 
him. 


The  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  Canada 

Toronto,  April  26,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  T.  E.  E.  Shore,  Asst.  Secretary: 

We  have  received  with  profound  sorrow  the  information  of  the 
death  of  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  your  revered  Corresponding 
Secretary.  I  have  been  privileged  to  attend  the  annual  meetings  of 
the  Mission  Boards  Conference  during  the  past  four  years,  and  I 


94  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

have  been  associated  with  Dr.  Cobb  upon  a  number  of  the  com- 
mittees of  that  conference.  There  has  been  no  figure  in  missionary 
circles  with  which  I  have  been  more  impressed  during  these  years 
than  that  of  Dr.  Cobb.  He  possessed  in  a  marked  degree  the  qual- 
ities of  Christian  statesmanship,  with  his  deep  sympathy,  inspired 
vision  and  calm  judgment.  We  shall  miss  his  words  of  wisdom  in 
the  councils  of  the  mission  Boards  of  North  America,  but  will  be 
inspired  by  his  life  work  to  the  greater  attainment  of  our  ideals  in 
missionary  work. 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church 

Baltimore,  Md.,  April  23,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Fred  C.  Klein,  Secretary: 

The  announcement  of  the  death  of  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb, 
D.D.,  for  so  many  years  the  honored  and  efficient  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  your  Board,  causes  me  personal  sorrow.  I  met  his 
brother  when  I  was  a  missionary  in  Japan,  and  recall  the  excellent 
addresses  he  delivered  there.  When  I  first  attended  the  Confer- 
ence of  Foreign  Missions  Boards  I  made  myself  known  to  Dr.  Cobb, 
and  spoke  of  his  brother's  visit  to  Japan,  and  from  that  hour  I  felt 
drawn  to  him.  He  commanded  my  esteem  and  confidence  in  no 
small  degree,  and  his  qualities  of  head  and  heart  gained  for  him  a 
commanding  place  in  the  conference,  where  his  deep  interest,  sound 
judgment,  strong  faith  and  loyal  devotion  to  the  great  interests  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ  always  exerted  a  pronounced  influence. 
We  will  greatly  miss  him  in  our  annual  gatherings,  where  his  cor- 
dial greeting  awaited  us,  and  where  he  added  so  much  to  the  good 
fellowship  and  success  of  the  meeting.  Such  a  man  and  his  work 
are  a  great  blessing  to  any  church,  and  his  memory  rightly  will  be 
cherished  as  an  example  to  others.     I  regret  very  much  indeed  that. 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  95 

owing  to  the  pressure  of  many  official  duties,  I  am  denied  the  priv- 
ilege of  attending  the  memorial  service,  but  I  will  be  there  in 
spirit. 


General    Missionary    Board,    Free   Methodist 
Church  of  North  America 

Chicago,  III.,  May  13,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  B.  Winget,  Secretary: 

I  am  sure  that  you  and  your  Board  have  my  most  hearty  sym- 
pathy in  the  midst  of  the  great  loss  which  you  have  sustained  in  the 
death  of  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.  D.,  who,  for  so  many  years, 
has  been  such  a  faithful,  beloved  and  efficient  Corresponding  Sec- 
retary of  your  Board. 

From  the  human  standpoint  of  vision  we  can  hardly  see  how 
such  men  can  be  spared,  but  in  the  midst  of  our  loss  we  acknowl- 
edge the  wisdom  of  Him  who  calls  His  servants  from  labor  to  re- 
ward, and  look  to  Him  to  provide  more  laborers  to  fill  the  vacancies 
made  by  those  who  have  been  discharged. 


The  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  U.  S.  A. 

New  York,  January  30,  191 1. 

From  the  Right  Rev.  Arthur  S.  Lloyd,  D.D.,  President: 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  recall  the  very  pleasant  social  relation 
that  always  existed  between  Dr.  Cobb  and  me  and  the  constant 
help  and  inspiration  he  was  to  the  men  to  whom  like  work  had  been 
committed.  The  exactness  of  his  knowledge  and  the  serenity  of 
his  faith  were  always  helpful.  In  conference  the  Doctor  was  always 
considerate  and  patient.     His  outlook  was  always  broad  and  gen- 


96  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

erous.     He  will  be  missed  from  the  council  of  the  men  who  bear 
the  weight  of  responsibility  for  the  Missionary  Boards. 

It  is  pleasant  to  think  that  a  permanent  record  of  his  long  and 
devoted  service  is  being  prepared,  as  such  records  help  to  keep 
before  us  all  the  purpose  for  which  we  are  called  and  are  no  doubt 
a  potent  influence  for  the  help  of  and  inspiration  to  the  young 
people. 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  General 

Synod  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church, 

United  States  of  America 

Baltimore,  Md.,  April  22,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  L.  B.  Wolf,  Secretary: 

I  was  deeply  grieved  to  hear  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Cobb,  which 
news  I  learned  on  my  arrival  in  New  York  on  the  20th  inst.,  at  the 
meeting  of  the  secretaries.  He  was  indeed  one  of  God's  noble  men, 
wonderfully  sympathetic  and  gentle.  I  never  knew  him  to  be 
ruffled  in  temper  in  all  my  acquaintanceship  of  over  ten  years.  I 
am  glad  indeed  to  have  been  privileged  to  meet  and  work  with  one 
so  consecrated  and  devoted. 


The  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  Among 

the  Heathen,  The  Moravian  Church 

in  America 

Bethlehem,  Pa.,  April  22,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  Paul  de  Schweinitz,  Secretary: 

It  is  with  profound  regret  that  I  have  heard  of  the  death  of  Dr. 
Cobb.  I  have  known  him  personally  for  more  than  eleven  years. 
We  served  on  the  Committee  of  Reference  and  Counsel  together  for 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  97 

six  years.  The  last  time  that  I  spoke  to  him  was  in  January  of  this 
year,  when  we  lunched  together,  and  when  he  told  me  that  he 
was  looking  forward  to  celebrating  his  golden  wedding  aniversary 
this  year. 

Permit  me  to  express  to  your  Board  my  deep  personal  sympathy 
and  likewise  the  sympathy  of  our  Board.  We  are  in  a  position  to 
sympathize  with  you  most  keenly,  because  for  the  first  time  in  the 
one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  years  of  our  mission  history  we  have 
lost  a  member,  and  a  most  valued  member,  of  our  Mission  Board  at 
sea.  The  Rev.  Ernst  Reichel  went  down  on  the  ill-fated  "Prins 
Willem  II,"  while  en  route  to  pay  an  official  visit  to  our  mission  in 
Surinam. 

I  wish  I  could  be  present  at  the  memorial  service,  but  I  can 
not  very  well  be  there.  I  will  suggest  tomy  colleague,  Bishop  Morris 
W.  Leibert,  D.D.,  to  represent  us. 


American    Friends'    Board   of    Foreign 
Missions 

Richmond,  Ind.,  April  22,  1910. 

From  Mr.  Charles  E.  Tebbetts,  General  Secretary: 

I  am  sure  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Cobb  will  bring 
a  deep  sense  of  loss  to  all  our  mission  Boards,  and  to  all  v;ho  are  in- 
terested in  mission  work.  His  long  experience  and  his  practical 
knowledge  of  the  work  in  its  various  departments  made  his  counsel 
specially  valuable.  I  am  sure  we  are  now  so  bound  together  in  the 
common  feeling  of  the  world's  need  and  the  common  consciousness 
of  Christ's  power  to  meet  the  need  that  the  dropping  out  of  the 
ranks  of  one  whose  life  has  been  so  conspicuously  useful  will  bring 
to  us  all  a  feeling  of  bereavement.  Permit  me  to  join  with  you  in 
your  sorrow  and  extend  to  you  my  heartfelt  sympathy. 


98  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

Mission  Board  of  the  Christian  Church 

Dayton,  Ohio,  May  10,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  M.  T.  Morrill,  Secretary: 

In  behalf  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Mission  Board  of 
the  Christian  Church  I  wish  to  express  our  profound  sorrow  on  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  so  long  a 
trusted  servant  of  your  Board.  We  have  all  profited  by  his  thor- 
ough devotion  and  wise  counsel.  Had  it  been  feasible  our  Board 
would  have  been  represented  at  the  memorial  service.  At  its  an- 
nual session  our  Board  will  be  asked  to  put  on  record  a  resolution 
touching  your  great  loss. 

Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society 
(Disciples) 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  April  25,  1910. 

From  Mr.  F.  M.  Rains,  Corresponding  Secretary: 

In  the  death  of  the  Rev.  H.  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  your  Board  has 
lost  a  valuable  executive  and  the  good  cause  of  Christian  missions 
a  warm  and  faithful  friend.  We  extend  to  you  and  your  associates 
sincere  sympathy  in  your  great  loss. 

China  Inland  Mission 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  April  22,  1910. 

From  Mr.  F.  H.  Neale,  Secretary: 

Permit  me  to  thank  you  for  your  courtesy  in  sending  to  us  an 
intimation  of  the  death  of  Rev.  H.  N.  Cobb,  who  was  for  so  many 
years  the  honored  Corresponding  Secretary  of  your  Board.  Please 
accept  an  expression  of  our  heartfelt  sympathy  with  you  in  the  great 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  09 

loss  your  work  has  thus  sustained.  We  feel  that  his  removal,  in- 
deed, will  be  a  distinct  loss  to  the  work  of  foreign  missions  through- 
out the  world,  as  it  will  be  mourned  by  the  representatives  of  the 
forei2:n  mission  bodies  of  North  America. 


American  Council,  Africa  Inland  Mission 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  April  23,  1910. 
From  Mr.  J.  Davis  Adams,  Executive  Secretary: 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Council  of  the  Africa 
Inland  Mission  desires  to  express  its  sympathy  and  its  sorrow  be- 
cause of  the  loss  of  your  valued  and  highly  esteemed  associate, 
Dr.  Cobb. 

May  God,  who  in  His  wisdom  saw  fit  to  promote  Dr.  Cobb, 
give  grace  and  comfort  to  his  loved  ones  and  guidance  to  his  former 
associates  in  the  work  with  which  he  has  so  long  been  connected. 


American  Bible  Society 

New  York,  April  22,  1910. 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Ingraham  Haven,  Secretary: 

I  am  this  morning  in  receipt  of  your  favor  of  the  21st  of  April. 
I  assure  you  we  all  of  us  deeply  mourn  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Cobb.  I  had  peculiarly  delightful  relationships  with  him  not 
only  in  the  conferences  in  which  we  were  associated  as  secretaries, 
but  in  the  Bureau  of  Missions  in  which  he  took  an  interest  and  in 
the  occasional  meetings  on  the  trains  back  and  forth  to  where  we 
resided  in  neighboring  towns.  He  was  such  a  lovable  character. 
He  did  me  good  and  I  wish  to  express  my  personal  sorrow  and 
sympathy  with  you  and  others  that  are  bearing  this  loss. 


100  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

American  Tract  Society 

New  York,  April  23,  1910. 
From  the  Rev.  Dr.  Judson  Swift,  Secretary: 

The  officers  and  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Tract 
Society  were  greatly  pained  to  learn  of  the  death  of  Rev.  Henry 
Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  who  has  been  for  so  many  years  the  efficient 
and  consecrated  Secretary  of  your  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  His 
life  work  has  been  most  unusual,  and  he  will  be  remembered  as  one 
of  the  most  faithful  servants  of  the  Church  that  he  so  deeply  loved- 
and  served. 

We  extend  to  you  our  sincerest  sympathy  in  this  hour  of  your 
great  loss.  Our  faith,  however,  is  triumphant  in  the  consciousness  that 
our  beloved  brother  is  enjoying  the  abundant  reward  awaiting  him. 


Student  Volunteer  Movement  for  Foreign 
Missions 

May  6,  1910. 
From  Dr.  John  R.  Mott,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee: 

I  learn  with  deep  sorrow  of  the  homegoing  of  my  highly  valued 
friend,  Dr.  Cobb.  I  owe  more  to  him  than  I  can  express.  Through 
all  these  years  I  have  turned  to  him  repeatedly  for  suggestion  and 
counsel,  and  had  come  to  repose  complete  confidence  in  his  advice. 
Never  shall  I  lose  the  benefits  which  came  from  fellowship  with  him. 
Kindly  assure  the  members  of  his  family  of  my  sincere  sympathy. 

Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 

New  York,  November  11,  1910. 
From  Mr.  J.  Campbell  White,  General  Secretary : 

Among  all  the  valuable  friends  and  counsellors  of  the  Lay- 
men's Missionary  Movement  no  one  has  been  more  interested  or 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  101 

sympathetic  from  the  beginning  than  Dr.  Cobb.  On  many  dif- 
ferent occasions  he  has  taken  pains  to  express  his  deep  interest  in 
the  work  of  the  Movement,  and  to  make  valuable  suggestions  con- 
cerning the  best  methods  of  carrying  it  forward. 

His  death  has  been  a  distinct  loss  to  us  as  well  as  to  every  mis- 
sionary organization  in  America.  »  • 


Young  People's  Missionary  Movement 

New  York,  April  23,  1910. 
From  Mr.  Harry  S.  Myers,  AssH  Gen.  Secretary: 

I  desire  to  express  the  sympathy  of  our  Movement  in  your  great 
loss,  and  we  share  with  you  the  sorrow  which  comes  not  only  to 
your  Board  but  to  the  cause  of  foreign  missions,  which  for  so  many 
years  has  lain  so  near  to  the  heart  of  Dr.  Cobb. 

We  are  all  indebted  to  him  for  his  interest  in  our  Movement 
and  in  us  personally,  and  his  many  words  of  helpfulness  and  cheer. 

The  Clifton  Springs  Sanitarium  Co. 

Clifton  Springs,  N.  Y.,  July  5,  1910. 

From  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Foster,  Secretary: 

The  death  of  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D,,  which  occurred 
on  Sunday,  April  17,  1910,  removed  from  our  Board  of  Trustees 
one  who  had  been  associated  with  us  since  1891,  and  who  was  the 
senior  trustee  in  term  of  service.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  the 
life  and  work  of  the  sanitarium,  and  always  proved  a  valuable 
helper  at  our  annual  meetings.  His  health  was  always  delicate, 
and  the  responsibility  of  his  office  as  Corresponding  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  taxed 
his  strength  greatly,  but  he  rarely  missed  an  annual  meeting  here 
unless  prevented  by  his  official  duties. 


102  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

An  interesting  incident  connected  with  his  decease  is  that  he 
would  have  celebrated  his  golden  wedding  anniversary  if  he  had 
lived  four  weeks  longer,  and  that  Mrs.  Cobb  also  passed  away  be- 
fore the  wedding  day,  so  they  were  united  in  the  Heavenly  Home. 

The  unfailing  courtesy  of  Dr.  Cobb  and  his  ready  aid  in  any 
discussion  of  knotty  questions  was  very  marked  and  helpful. 

We  are  glad  to  express  our  appreciation  of  his  faithful  service, 
and  to  extend  the  assurance  of  our  sympathy  to  his  son  and  daugh- 
ter in  their  bereavement. 


MEMORIAL   MINUTES 

ECCLESIASTICAL  BODIES 


MEMORIAL  MINUTES 

ECCLESIASTICAL  BODIES 


The  Millbrook  Reformed  Church 

Reverend  Henry  N,  Cobb,  D.D., 

and  Mrs.  Matilda  Van  Zandt  Cobb. 

The  Millbrook  Reformed  Church  hereby  records  its  profound 
respect  and  grateful  affection  for  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  N.  Cobb  and 
Matilda  Van  Zandt,  his  beloved  wife.  Dr.  Cobb  came  to  Mill- 
brook before  the  church  was  organized  and  remained  its  pastor  for 
fifteen  years.  To  him  and  his  wife  is  due  very  much  of  the  success 
that  has  been  attained. 

They  have  left  a  blessed  memory  here ;  the  fruits  of  their  sow- 
ing still  abide  in  this  entire  community.  Their  lives  are  examples 
of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  earnest  and  unselfish  Christians. 
"They  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives  and  in  their  death 
they  were  not  divided."  Together  they  labored  and  together  they 
have  gone  to  their  reward. 

With  the  bereaved  children  we  most  tenderly  sympathize  and 
commend  them  to  the  God  of  all  Comfort,  yet  we  rejoice  that  "He 
giveth  his  beloved  sleep,"  and  that  after  toil  comes  rest,  and  after 
lives  full  of  service,  the  crown  of  rejoicing. 

(Signed)     J.  E.  Lyall, 

William  R.  Anderson, 

Committee. 

The  Classis  of  Poughkeepsie 

The  Classis  of  Poughkeepsie,  at  Rhinebeck,  April  19,  1910, 
made  the  following  minute,  and  ordered  it  sent  to  The  Christian 
Intelligencer  and  to  the  family : 


106  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

We  share  the  profound  sorrow  of  our  entire  Church — and  the 
much  larger  circle  of  friends  and  Christian  workers — at  the  death 
of  the  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  the  beloved  Secretary  of  our  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions. 

Our  claims  for  expressing  our  grief  rest  upon  his  long  member- 
ship in  this  Classis.  For  fifteen  years,  while  pastor  of  the  Mill- 
brook  Church,  and  for  twenty-nine  years  more,  up  to  the  day  of 
his  death,  we  knew  him  as  a  faithful  servant  of  God ;  we  remember 
him  as  a  self-denying  friend ;  we  cherish  the  memory  of  his  kind- 
ness to  all  with  whom  he  had  aught  to  do ;  we  recall  his  eloquent 
advocacy  of  the  foreign  missionary  cause,  to  which  he  gave  his  life ; 
we  mourn  that  we  shall  see  his  face  no  more,  yet  we  know  His 
work  was  done,  for  God  called  him  home. 

We  assure  his  bereaved  wife  and  children  of  our  tender  sym- 
pathy, and  our  fervent  prayer  in  their  behalf,  and  we  bid  them  hear 
with  us  the  Master's  voice  saying  to  their  beloved:  "Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant ;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."  - 

J.  E.  Lyall, 

J.  R.  DUFFIELD, 

F.  R.  Benjamin, 

Committee. 

The  Classis  of  New  York 

The  Classis  of  New  York,  met  in  stated  session  this  nineteenth 
of  April,  1910,  desires  to  put  on  record  an  expression  of  its  pro- 
found sorrow  at  the  death,  on  the  seventeenth  instant,  of  the  Rev. 
Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D,,  the  efficient  and  beloved  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  At  the  beginning  of 
his  ministry  he  gave  himself  to  the  foreign  missionary  work  and  was 
for  two  years  a  missionary  of  the  American  Board  in  Persia.  Com- 
pelled by  the  failure  of  his  health  to  return  to  this  country,  he  served 
for  fifteen  years  as  pastor  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Millbrook, 
N.  Y.,  and  was  for  several  years  an  active  member  of  our  Foreign 
Missionary  Board.    In  the  autumn  of  1882  he  became  its  Corre- 


MEMORIAL    MINUTES  107 

spending  Secretary  and  filled  that  position  with  eminent  abiUty 
and  fidelity  till  his  death.  To  his  sound  judgment,  unwearied  de- 
votion and  profound  faith  the  success  and  enlargement  of  the  work 
of  the  Board  have  in  great  measure  been  due.  He  had  the  entire 
confidence,  the  sincere  respect,  and  in  unusual  measure  the  person- 
al affection  of  our  own  Church,  and  other  boards  and  churches 
looked  upon  him  as  one  of  the  leaders,  of  largest  experience  and 
greatest  wisdom,  in  this  world-wide  movement.  While  we  grieve 
that  we  shall  see  his  face  no  more,  we  rejoice  in  the  enduring  results 
and  the  stimulating  example  of  his  most  useful  life. 

Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  minute  be  spread  upon  the  records 
of  the  Classis  and  published  in  The  Christian  Intelligencer,  and 
that  a  copy  be  sent,  with  the  assurance  of  our  sincere  sympathy,  to 
the  family  of  Dr.  Cobb. 

Edward  B.  Coe, 
George  C.  Lenington, 

A.  J.  MUSTE, 

Committee. 


The  Particular  Synod  of  Albany 

Since  the  last  meeting  of  the  Particular  Synod  of  Albany,  our 
denomination  has  sustained  an  irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  H.  N.  Cobb,  who  for  twenty-seven  years  labored  untiringly 
as  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  for  the  extension  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  especially  in  those  lands  not  yet  enrolled 
among  the  Christian  countries  of  the  world.     Be  it  therefore 

Resolved,  That  we  unite  our  voice  with  the  many  individuals 
and  organizations  which  have  already  expressed  their  heartfelt  ap- 
preciation of  his  work,  rendered  with  such  blessed  and  enduring 
results. 


108  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

Resolved,  further,  That  beside  embodying  this  expression  in  the 
minutes  of  the  Synod,  a  copy  be  sent  to  the  bereaved  family,  and 
another  for  publication  in  The  Christian  Intelligencer. 


The  General  Synod,  R.  C.  A.,  June,  1910 

We  record  our  deep  sense  of  sorrow  and  of  great  loss  which  we 
have  suffered  during  the  past  year  by  death  in  the  official  member- 
ship of  the  Board. 

Well-nigh  irreparable  loss  has  been  sufifered  in  the  death  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  for  thirty-six  years  a  member  of  the  Board, 
and  for  twenty-seven  years  its  Correspondiny  Secretary,  who  died 
April  17, 1910.  For  more  than  a  generation  this  missionary  states- 
man gave  to  the  Board  distinguished  and  valuable  service. 


MISCELLANIA 

EDITORIAL  TRIBUTES 


MISCELLANIA 

EDITORIAL  TRIBUTES 


The  Christian  Intelligencer 

I.  April  20,  1910. 

Following  close  upon  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Dr. 
Otte,  of  our  Amoy  Mission  in  China,  comes  with  equal  suddenness 
that  of  the  death  on  Sunday  at  his  home  in  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  of 
the  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  for  nearly  thirty  years  the  efficient 
and  greatly  beloved  Corresponding  Secretary  of  our  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions.  The  passing  of  these  dear  brethren  and  faithful 
servants  of  God  from  their  important  fields  of  labor  to  their  rest 
and  recompense  is  not  only  a  heavy  affliction  to  those  officially  and 
intimately  associated  with  them  in  their  work,  but  a  sore  bereave- 
ment to  our  entire  Church,  with  whose  foreign  mission  interests  they 
have  been  so  long,  so  closely  and  so  essentially  identified.  What  to 
them  after  an  exceptionally  useful  career  in  the  service  of  the  Church 
and  its  supreme  work,  that  of  world-wide  missions,  is  great  gain,  is 
to  us,  indeed,  a  lamentable  loss.  Their  work  was  done,  and  well 
done,  and  their  passing  from  the  scenes  and  labors  of  earth  to  "the 
rest  that  remaineth"  is  a  call  and  inspiration  to  us  who  tarry  here 
yet  awhile,  to  do  with  our  might  what  our  hands  find  to  do,  for  the 
night  cometh.  Dr.  Cobb  was  born  in  this  city  in  1834 ;  was  gradu- 
ated from  Yale  College  in  1855,  and  from  the  Union  Seminary  in 
1857.  He  was  licensed  and  ordained  in  1860  by  the  New  York 
Presbytery  and  was  sent  out  by  the  American  Board  as  missionary 
to  the  Nestorians  in  Persia  and  Koordistan.  Returning,  after  a 
period  of  devoted  service,  to  this  country,  he  became  pastor  in  1866 
of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Millbrook,  N.  Y.,  which  charge  he  re- 
linquished in  1881  to  take  up  the  duties  of  Corresponding  Secretary 


112  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

of  our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  in  which  capacity  lie  faithfully 
served  the  rest  of  his  days.  Dr.  Cobb  received  the  honorary  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Rutgers  College  in  1878.  We  can 
only  add,  in  this  hurried  and  brief  notice,  that  Dr.  Cobb  was  widely 
influential  and  esteemed  beyond  denominational  limits ;  served  on 
many  important  committees,  and  was  chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Ecumenical  Council  on  Foreign  Missions,  which 
met  in  this  city  ten  years  ago. 

II.  April  27,  1910. 

The  resolutions  of  sympathy  and  respect  which  are  coming  into 
this  oflEice  from  every  quarter  also  show  the  hold  that  Dr.  Cobb  had 
upon  the  affections  and  regard  not  only  of  our  own  Church  and  her 
missionaries  and  native  Christians,  but  upon  those  of  the  friends 
of  missions  in  every  land.  He  was  of  such  singular  kindliness  of 
thought  and  righteousness  of  life  that  the  phrase  "a  Christian  gen- 
tleman" may  be  most  worthily  and  accurately  used  in  describing 
his  character.  His  was  a  life  of  whole-hearted  devotion  to  that 
which  with  all  his  heart  be  believed  to  be  "the  greatest  work  in  the 
world" — the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  to  every  creature — and 
the  influence  and  results  of  his  life  work  will  long  abide  with  those 
who  knew  him  and  those  for  whom  he  labored.  Of  him  may  be 
most  truly  and  reverently  said :  "Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in 
the  Lord ;  yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors ; 
for  their  works  do  follow  them." 


The  Leader 

April  27,  1910. 

Called  upon  again  to  use  the  heavy  black  line,  impressed  anew 
with  the  fact  that  the  mourners  go  about  the  streets,  and  that  the 
fell  destroyer  death  walks  ruthlessly  among  the  messengers  of  the 


MISCELLANIA  113 

Gospel  of  eternal  life,  by  the  sudden  translation  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  the  well-known  and  beloved  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  the  triumphant  note  of  the 
great  missionary  worker  gives  some  comfort.  Death  and  the  grave 
may  seem  to  snatch  a  temporary  victory,  despoil  the  Lord's  battle- 
field of  valiant  and  devoted  warriors  when  He  goes  forth  to  war,  and 
rob  his  host  of  chosen  heroes  and  leaders,  but,  faith  in  Him  who 
liveth  evermore  and  assurance  that  all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love,  gives  the  challenge  to  the  grim  enemy  of 
humanity  and  its  redemption,  in  this  defiance  of  a  lively  hope :  "O 
grave,  where  is  thy  victory;  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  !" 

The  deceased  was,  in  his  remarkable  personality  and  in  his 
faithful,  painstaking  toil  the  timely  gift  of  the  Head  of  the  Church 
to  our  household  of  faith  in  behalf  of  his  work  in  the  regions  beyond. 

A  minister  of  the  Gospel,  with  a  knowledge  of  the  demands  of  a 
missionary's  task,  and  with  the  experience  of  a  successful  pastor- 
ate, he  came  to  his  cherished  work  of  "toiling  for  the  Master  and 
for  men"  thoroughly  qualified  and  well  equipped,  ever  proving 
himself  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed. 

To  crowd  it  into  this  brief  space,  our  dear  departed  friend,  whom 
many  of  us  knew  and  met  and  heard,  was  a  believer  of  large  sym- 
pathies and  ^  a  most  hopeful  disposition,  born  of  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  the  Son  of  God.  His  was  a  burning  zeal  fed  by  a  passion  for 
souls  held  in  the  bondage  of  darkness  and  sin.  He  felt  that  upon 
him  and  his  office  and  by  its  activities  upon  the  entire  church  was 
the  burden  of  the  Lord's  great  commission :  Go  ye  and  preach. 

As  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, he  was  loyal  to  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  he  believed  in  all  the 
promises  of  God  given  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world  and  withal  the 
love  of  God  always  constrained  him. 

May  his  mantle  fall  upon  and  his  spirit  rest  upon  his  successor, 
and  may  his  works  follow  him  into  that  coming  happiness  when  he, 
too,  shares  the  joy  of  his  Lord  in  seeing  of  the  travail  of  their  souls, 
in  so  far  as  the  servant  may  share  the  Master's  portion. 


114  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World 

June,  1910,  and  January,  1911 

Another  devoted  missionary  statesman  has  gone.  The  death 
on  April  17th  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb,  D.D.,  removed  one 
who  for  nearly  three  decades  exercised  a  widespread  influence  as 
Missionary  Secretary  of  the  Reformed  (Dutch)  Church,  and  who 
was  distinguished  for  his  untiring  energy,  his  ripe  judgment  and  his 
wide  experience  in  missionary  affairs.  By  his  departure  the  Church 
and  the  cause  of  missions  have  suffered  a  great  loss. 


The  Mission  Field 

June,  1910 
A  Prince  and  a  Great  Man 

If  Abner  was  entitled  to  so  high  a  designation  as  a  mighty 
warrior  before  the  Lord,  how  much  more  is  our  beloved  and  trans- 
lated Doctor  Henry  N.  Cobb  entitled  to  it ! 

We  do  not  fully  appreciate  how  large  a  space  a  high  and  stately 
tree  has  occupied,  what  a  wealth  of  life  it  has  represented,  what  a 
generous  and  inspiriting  shadow  it  has  cast,  until  it  is  swept  down 
by  some  fierce  wind  or  is  cut  down  by  the  woodman's  ax,  or,  ripe 
to  the  tip,  it  falls  when  all  the  woods  are  still. 

It  is  so  with  men  who  have  held  strategic  and  important  posts 
in  the  life  of  the  Church  and  the  world.  Those  who  saw  most  of 
Dr.  Cobb,  and  who  go  back  to  where  this  lordly  and  lovable  life 
once  stood  with  such  stability,  that  it  seemed  among  the  things  un- 
shakable, feel  most  deeply  what  a  great  vacancy  the  transplanting 
of  this  tree  of  the  Lord  has  left  behind  it. 

What  a  wealth  of  personality  has  gone  with  his  going !  His  was 
the  strength  of  a  well-knit  trunk;  his  was  the  gentleness  and  pli- 
ancy of  the  tender  branches;  his  was  the  playful  and  brightening 


MISCELLANIA  115 

humor  of  the  sportive  leaves;  his  was  the  heaven-outreaching  of 
the  climbing  and  expanding  crown. 

What  a  wealth  of  wisdom  has  gone  with  his  going !  What  ex- 
tensive and  minute  and  immediately  available  command  he  had  of 
the  whole  subject  of  world  evangelization.  He  knew,  or  knew  of, 
all  the  great  leaders,  the  great  achievements  of  the  Gospel  far  and 
near,  the  delicate  and  difficult  issues  that  arise  in  the  coordination 
and  consolidation  of  a  work  once  simple  and  rudimentary,  but 
growing  more  complex  with  every  year  of  expansion  and  advance. 
What  remarkable  papers  he  would  prepare  that  would  shape  policy 
in  empire-wide  church  movements.  They  were  such  as  a  Secre- 
tary of  State  hke  Webster  or  Hay  might  prepare  in  connection  with 
some  great  and  complicated  international  affair. 

With  him  were  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  on  which  we 
drew  freely  and  constantly,  scarce  imagining  that  the  treasure 
house  might  ever  close  its  doors  and  be  borne  elsewhere. 

What  a  wealth  of  sympathy  has  gone  with  his  going  !  He  was 
the  father  and  friend  of  every  missionary.  "Like  a  father  pitieth 
his  children,"  so  Dr.  Cobb  took  to  his  heart  the  missionaries  and 
their  families.  Every  concession  for  their  comfort  that  was  legiti- 
mate he  pleaded  for.  He  gave  advice  to  missionaries'  children, 
every  missionary's  sorrow  struck  home  to  his  heart  and  brought 
forth  words  of  comfort.  He  saw  the  expanding  work  and  felt  for 
the  men  and  women  at  the  front,  who  were  again  and  again  held 
back  by  a  church  which,  though  interested,  did  not  fully  see  the 
urgency  of  the  need,  the  promise  and  potency  of  the  oppor- 
tunity. 

What  a  wealth  of  enthusiasm  has  gone  with  his  going !  His 
was  the  sustained  glow  of  anthracite — not  the  splutter  and  smoking 
flame  of  bituminous.  He  never  lost  interest  in  the  great  work  he 
was  guiding  and  helping  on.  It  was  always  of  superlative  impor- 
tance to  him ;  he  was  always  ready  to  advocate  it,  and  any  slur  on 
this  work  would  set  his  soul  all  a-kindle.  With  what  fervor  and 
power  he  pleaded  his  cause  year  after  year  at  the  General 
Snyod ! 


116  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

What  a  wealth  of  fragrant  and  quickening  memory  still  perme- 
ates the  air,  though  the  noble  tree-trunk  and  branch  and  bloom 
are  gone. 

No ;  this  was  not  a  tree  !  This  was  a  man  !  This  was  a  man 
of  God.  This  was  a  Captain-General  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  To 
the  last  his  call  was  Onward !  Forward !  So  ours  is  the  clarion 
call  to  battle ;  ours  is  the  call  of  the  Cross.  Let  confidence  in  the 
great  Captain  of  our  salvation,  let  the  magnitude  of  the  issues  at 
stake  and  the  prospect  of  the  sublimest  of  all  triumphs  in  view 
move  us  to  wheel  into  line  and  keep  in  line.  High  or  low,  far  or 
near,  let  us  take  our  place  and  fight  to  the  finish. 


The  Mission  Gleaner 

June,  1910 

Not  only  the  Reformed  Church,  but  the  Church  Universal, 
mourns  the  loss  of  Rev.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  D.D.,  whose  death  oc- 
curred in  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  on  April  17.  For  nearly  thirty  years 
Dr.  Cobb  was  the  greatly  beloved  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  The  tender  and  beautiful  address  of 
Rev.  E.  B.  Coe,  D.D.,  at  the  funeral  services  of  Dr. Cobb;  the  many 
testimonies,  both  pubhc  and  private,  and  the  tributes  of  the  me- 
morial service  held  in  New  York,  when  representatives  of  other  de- 
nominational Boards  united  in  expressions  of  loving  appreciation 
of  his  beautiful  character,  as  well  as  to  his  long  and  efficient  service 
for  the  Master,  all  these  leave  little  that  can  be  written  here.  Mrs. 
Cobb  for  more  than  twenty  years  was  editor  of  the  Gleaner.  The 
following  letter  from  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  through  the  pen  of  its  Honorary  Presi- 
dent, Mrs.  P.  D.  Van  Cleef,  is  the  expression  not  only  of  the  loving 
sympathy  of  the  Board,  but  of  the  entire  body  of  women  in  the 
Reformed  Church : 


MISCELLANIA  117 

25  East  22d  Street, 
New  York,  May  3,  1910. 
Our  Dear  Mrs.  Cobb  : 

The  hearts  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Woman's  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  are  grief-stricken  at  our  loss  in  the  departure  of 
dear  Dr.  Cobb.  It  is  an  irreparable  loss;  we  may  not  hope  e'er  to 
see  his  like  again.  He  has  been  our  benign  counselor,  guide  and 
sympathizing  friend,  ever  patient  and  courteous.  We  loved  him, 
and  will  hold  his  name  precious  in  memory. 

To  you,  Mrs.  Cobb,  his  cherished  wife  and  life  companion,  to 
the  son  and  daughter  he  so  dearly  loved,  we  would  express,  what 
language  cannot  adequately  express,  our  tenderest,  loving  sym- 
pathy in  your  heavy  bereavement. 

You  and  we  bow  to  the  Heavenly  Father's  will,  knowing  that 
He  never  makes  mistakes,  and  thanking  Him  that  He  has  given  to 
the  Church  the  beautiful  character,  beneficent  influence  and  con- 
secrated devotion  of  Henry  Nitchie  Cobb. 

We  commend  you  to  the  Lord,  whom  you  have  served  to- 
gether for  so  many  years,  and  whose  consolations  abound  to  His 
own.  With  tender  recollections  of  all  that  you  have  been  to  us 
and  with  assurance  of  our  abiding  love,  we  are, 

Your  Sister  Associates  in  the 

Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 


Just  as  we  go  to  press  comes  the  startling  news  of  the  death  of 
our  beloved  Mrs.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  for  many  years  a  valued  member 
of  our  Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and,  until  a  few  years 
ago,  the  editor  of  this  magazine.  Although  she  was  debarred  from 
active  work  for  some  months,  on  account  of  failing  health,  we  have 
constantly  felt  the  inspiration  of  her  sympathy  and  her  clear  and 
comprehensive  acquaintance  with  all  of  our  work.  We  are  doubly 
bereaved  in  the  death  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Cobb;  but  while  we  grieve 
for  ourselves  and  feel  the  deepest  sympathy  for  their  dear  children, 


118  DR.    COBB:    IN    MEMORIAM 

we  can  but  rejoice  through  our  tears  that  the  days  of  separation  are 
over  and  that  together  they  are  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  whom 
they  loved  and  so  faithfully  served  here  on  earth.  To  them  has 
come  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  "We  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we 
shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 


God's  Plan 

"As  for  God,  His  may  is  perfect  " 

H.  N.  c. — M.  V.  z.  c. 

We  planned  a  rest  for  him ; 
After  long  years  of  sen'ice  begged  him  lay 
Aside  his  tools,  and  fold  his  charts  away, 
And  stay  his  busy,  care-worn  hands— and  then 
God  gave  completer  Rest. 

We  planned  a  home  for  her 
In  sunlight  land  bedecked  with  flowers  gay, 
Where  every  debt  a  loving  child  could  pay 
To  dearest  mother  might  be  paid — and  then 
God  gave  a  brighter  Home. 

We  planned  a  day  for  them, 
A  festival  of  gladness  tinged  with  pain. 
To  gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain 
Of  earthly  loves  before  the  night — and  then 
God  gave  an  endless  Day. 

We  dreaded  death  for  them. 
For  how  could  one  alone  pursue  the  long. 
Long  weary  road  without  the  other's  song  ? 
Our  little  faith  saw  not  His  plan — for  then 
God  gave  them  ageless  Life. 

—E.  P.  C. 

[Note— Written  for  the  Golden  Wedding  Day,  May  17,  1910.] 


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i 


COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY   LIBRARIES 

This  book  is  due  on  the  date  indicated  below,  or  at  the 
expiration  of  a  definite  period  after  the  date  of  borrowing,  as 
provided  by  the  library  rules  or  by  special  arrangement  with 
the  Librarian  in  charge. 


DATE  BORROWED 


DATE  DUE 


DATE  BORROWED 


DATE  DUE 


C28(946) MlOO 


JAr 


n1  3  47 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


0035520434 


938.2.7  C653 


938 .27  C633 

In  memoriam   ♦ . . 


^^^iOEfi 


^^^% 


